All dental packages receive pre-medication, an iv catheter, iv fluids, general anesthesia, anesthetic monitoring, dental cleaning and polishing of the teeth, the bair hugger, and full mouth dental X-Rays as part of the dental package.

We monitor blood pressure, end tidal carbon dioxide output, ECG, pulse oximetry, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate throughout the procedure. When we anesthetize a pet we utilize all the safety nets in our arsenal. We expect pre-anesthetic blood work within a few months of anesthesia and offer pre-anesthetic global FAST exams the morning of the procedure to help minimize any anesthetic risk. As soon as we identify that there will be extractions, we incorporate courtesy dental nerve blocks to keep the pet on the lowest plane of anesthesia possible for your pet’s safety. Truly,

when we have your pet under anesthesia for a dental, we try to keep your pet on a very light plane of anesthesia such that they typically have a palpebral response and a gag reflex. Anesthesia is an art and our job is to keep your pet as safe as possible. Nerve blocks are an important component to anesthesia for dentistry, and they also help keep your pet comfortable post op!

We try not to keep pets under anesthesia longer than 120 minutes. We know some veterinarians who will leave a pet under anesthesia for a dental for 3 or 4 hours at a time, but we disagree with this mentality. If a pet is doing well under anesthesia we may occasionally extend the dental beyond her usual 120 minute cut off, but we take into account how the pet is doing including vital signs, blood pressure, end tidal CO2 and temperature. IF there is more pathology than we can do under one anesthetic procedure, we may wake the pet up and reschedule a 2nd dental procedure.

We might use Consil which is a putty of glass beads that acts as a matrix for osteoclasts to form more bone. Again, we charge you for the product itself and a Doxirobe which acts as a membrane to keep the Consil in the area. This is done as an effort to save teeth!

Occasionally there will be enamel defects from trauma. If there is exposed dentin but the tooth is otherwise normal, we can smooth the area and do bonded sealants to protect the tooth from bacterial invasion. If the pulp chamber is involved we can’t do a sealant. (If numerous teeth are involved we discount bonded sealant on additional teeth as the nurse has already set up the equipment.)

The dental packages do NOT include blood work prior to the procedure nor antibiotic injections nor any anti-inflammatory and narcotic injections nor medications that go home after the dental. (We include any nerve blocks and our class 4 therapeutic laser to decrease pain intra-op and post-op as a courtesy.) Any medication prescriptions that go home with pets after a dental or procedure are not included in the procedural packages. A 5 pound chihuahua needs far less milligrams of whatever medication than a 100 pound dane.

Pre-operatively we send Protonix and melatonin for the night prior to anesthesia and gabapentin for the morning of anesthesia. These meds are at no charge. Pet parents give these by mouth at home. Anesthesia is an art and we strive to maintain the safest protocols.

All pets undergoing anesthesia receive an injection of Cerenia. Since we started this practice in 2013, peri-operative inappetence/nausea is now a rarity at TVC. Cerenia also has analgesic properties and decreases the amount of gas anesthetic needed. We try to keep our pets on the lightest plane of anesthesia possible to maintain body temperature and blood pressure.

You can clearly see that early intervention keeps dental care affordable. We send a courtesy “dental kit” home with patients to help owners keep the teeth healthy. We strive to make dental care affordable.

Your veterinarian will of course help you assess the situation on your consultation prior to the day of the dental.

We commonly use doxycycline gel (called Doxirobe) to help the pockets heal and allow the gingival to heal back to the tooth. When we do this, we charge you for the product used and it does not count toward the surgical time.