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Monday 22 August 2011

Preventative dentistry!

I am sure you have all heard the vet say "your pet needs her teeth cleaned" or had the experience of bad breath when you get close to your pet's mouth.

The reason for both of these begins with plaque! Your pets don't brush their teeth on a daily basis like we do so they are not mechanically removing the plaque from their teeth like we do.

Sure many dogs and cats eat dry food but most dry foods crumble when chewed, cleaning the tips of the teeth but leaving the rest of the tooth covered in plaque.

Plaque accumulation then leads to tartar which is hard, full of bacteria and dangerous to teeth. The reason most people don't believe tartar is a problem is that;  1) we rarely get tartar accumulation because we brush our teeth twice a day and 2) tartar is unlikely to stop your pet from eating.

So if we brush our teeth twice a day and go to the dentist for a teeth scale and polish every 6 to 12 months then why should our pets be any different?

I can hear you screaming from here - "He's kidding if he thinks I am going to brush my cat's teeth!" Well I can't blame you! Not many people do and not many pets will let you do it if you haven't been brushing their teeth from a young age.

So then the answer must be to get your pooches teeth cleaned with a scale and polish every 6 to 12 months!

Now I can hear you groan - "That's going to cost a fortune!"

My answer is NOT ANY MORE!!!

Here is the kicker. We have decided to be proactive and offer preventative dentistry for pets rather than waiting for the teeth to be bad enough to warrant an expensive dental.

Why preventative? And when?

Firstly your pet's teeth need to be graded in order to determine the extent of the problem.

Grade 0 means perfect teeth! Unfortunately there aren't many pets out there with Grade 0 teeth.

Grade 1 means mild plaque & tartar with mild gingivitis (gum reddening) like these teeth...


Grade 2 means moderate plaque & tartar with moderate gingivitis like this dog's teeth...


Now luckily for everyone involved Grades 1 & 2 are both reversible! There is no permanent damage if the pet's teeth are cleaned at these stages but as soon as we progress to Grade 3 there is permanent irreversible damage to the teeth and the tooth (or teeth) may need to be extracted.

Here is an image of what happens in a Grade 3 tooth...

OUCH!!!

As you can imagine Grade 4 is worse still!!! Grade 4 mouths will require multiple teeth to be extracted to relieve the dog or cat of chronic tooth pain.

So, from today we are offering significant cost reductions on Grade 1 and Grade 2 dentals - around 50% off!!

Why you ask? Preventative dentistry is good for your pets!

Here is a table of the relative costs of preventative dentistry (Grades 1 & 2) versus reactive dentistry (Grades 3 & 4) which often requires tooth extractions and oral surgery.


Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Cat
$175
$225
$450+
$550+
Dog
$225
$275
$550+
$650+


Now if that isn't an incentive to get your pooch or kitty's teeth cleaned on a regular basis I don't know what is!!!

Thursday 18 August 2011

DENTAL MONTH IS HERE!

Sorry this post is a little late but I have been at the ASAVA Conference and then frantically catching up but...

August is National Pet Dental Health Month and we are on board!!

Firstly we are offering FREE dental check-ups for your pet! The dental check-ups will be performed by either one of our vets or vet nurses (depending upon availability). Please contact us by phone or email to book your appointment.

There are also some great promotions from our supplier companies that we want to pass onto you.

Hills Pet Nutrition are giving away a chance to win a $10,000 dream holiday or one of 5 Apple iPad 2's if you purchase any bag of Hill's Science Diet Oral Care (including Oral Care treats) or Hills Prescription Diet t/d and enter the draw.

There are also some great resources at http://www.petdental.com/

Stay tuned for some great new offers and products we are about to offer!

Friday 29 July 2011

Bones - good or bad?

Are bones good or bad for dog's teeth? Well like many questions the answer is "it depends"!

The reason for this is that it really depends on how your dog approaches chewing on bones and the size of bones you are giving your pooch.

Unfortunately for dogs that are given large hard bones (for example lamb shanks) and attempt to crush these up with their back teeth often physics is against them and they end up with fractured teeth.

The most common tooth fracture we see is a slab fracture on the outside of the carnassial teeth of dogs. These fractures will cause pain, potential death of the tooth, potential infection and often requiring removal of the tooth! It's that serious.

The reason physics is against dogs who try to chew up hard bones is that the carnassial teeth (upper 4th premolar) act like scissors with the lower back teeth. If you put a hard object between an actual pair of scissors and try to close them at some stage the object will flip on its axis or the scissors will bend.

However dogs have their jaw joint that won't allow this to happen so it then comes down to which is stronger - the bone or the tooth? Unfortunately often the tooth is the weaker link and the outer part fractures and this will lead to problems, especially pain!


 












  Left: Rex's carnassial tooth fracture from chewing large bones
 
  Above: carnassial tooth fracture and abscess from American Veterinary Dentistry Society website



Obviously we don't want to put our furry friends in this serious situation so what can we do?

Firstly, there are multiple dental chews on the market that will do the same job cleaning your dog's teeth as bones do. I believe Greenies are the best but Dentastix, pig's ears and other treats will work OK as well.

Secondly, if you do want to give your dog bones then you can either offer them a meaty bone, supervise them eating it and then take it away once they begin to attempt to crunch up the bone; or give them smaller softer bones such as chicken wings or chicken necks that will not harm the teeth.

The key is trying to match the size of the bones to the size of your dog. Remember bones are fed to try to clean the teeth not to break them!

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB: IF ITS TOO HARD FOR YOU TO BREAK OR BEND WITH YOUR HANDS THEN IT"S TOO HARD TO PUT IN YOUR DOGS MOUTH!

Monday 25 July 2011

Rex's Trip to the Dentist...

Today Lisa, our lovely vet nurse, brought in her ridiculously spoilt dog Rex so I could have a look at his teeth. Rex has had smelly breath for a little while and given his desire to be a 40kg "lap dog" she thought we needed to clean his teeth.

Rex's breath was a little too smelly for close quarters but his teeth were pretty good apart from tartar buildup and gingivitis on his right carnassial tooth.







As you can see the tooth is browner than the others but really not that bad.










However Rex's carnassial tooth had a nasty fracture in it which is the result of breaking down heavy bones!




 OUCH!!!



Not only was Rex showing no signs of pain be was continuing to munch on bones and eat his dry food as normal!

The fracture meant that the tooth root was exposed which effectively means that the bacteria in his mouth had a direct tunnel down the tooth canal and into his jaw.

If we had have left this an abscess would have formed in his jaw and started to kill the surrounding bone. It's that nasty!!

Unfortunately we had to removed Rex's tooth to take away the discomfort and ensure he didn't get a horrible infection.

Now what can we learn from Rex's trip to the dentist today?

1. Dogs don't like showing pain!

If Rex was in the wild and showed that he had a tooth ache he would be discarded from the pack as he would be a liability and another mouth to feed. Our domestic pets still have these innate instincts which means that he would rather starve (effectively committing suicide) than not eat.

2. We cant always tell what is going on in our pets mouths until we closely examine them.

3. Bones aren't always good - more on that later in the week.

Rex came around from his anaesthetic with an obvious message for me but we have since made up!!!






Thursday 21 July 2011

Welcome to the Bondi Vets blog!

Hi everyone welcome to our new blog!

The objective of our blog is to provide you with information about all aspects of pet care, new products, patient cases that you may be interested in and some fun stuff here and there!

We will be adding original content regularly but also pulling information from numerous sources that we feel are appropriate in order to provide you with the best information we can.

Our blog will be updated mainly by Dr David Butchart with the occasional nurses perspective thrown in for good measure.

We will be linking this through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so you will always be able to get your fix!

Now with Dental Awareness Month almost upon us in August the plan is to start you off with practical tips to make your pets mouth as healthy as you can.

Have a look at this video about periodontal disease in humans. Its a great tool to visualise what is going on below the gum line - you just need imagine its your pets mouth!


If your pet has smelly breath then give us a call to discuss what we can do to help.

Until next time!

David