Preventive Dental Care Is As Essential To Your Pet's Overall Health As It Is To Yours
We'll examine your pet's teeth and gums during the annual check-up to detect any changes. We may schedule a comprehensive oral health exam, and treatment and X-ray depending on the results. We encourage you to make an appointment immediately if you notice any of these signs:
- Bad breath
- Broken or loose teeth
- Extra teeth or retained baby teeth
- Teeth that are discolored or covered in tartar
- Abnormal chewing, drooling, or dropping food from the mouth
- Reduced appetite or refusal to eat
- Pain in or around the mouth
- Bleeding from the mouth
- Swelling in the areas surrounding the mouth
You can help reduce severe dental disease by practicing regular home dental care. As with our teeth, regular oral exams and comprehensive oral health and treatment plans may be necessary to maintain optimal oral health.
Comprehensive Oral Exam
A healthy mouth is an important part of your pet's overall health. During every routine physical examination, our veterinarians perform an initial oral evaluation by examining your pet's teeth, gums, tongue, lips, and other visible structures. While this screening can identify obvious concerns, it is only the first step in evaluating your pet's dental health.
The majority of dental disease occurs below the gumline, where it cannot be seen during a routine examination. Because pets won't voluntarily open their mouths for a thorough evaluation—and probing beneath the gums would be uncomfortable—it is impossible to perform a complete oral assessment while they are awake.
For this reason, every professional dental procedure at 5-Points Animal Hospital includes a comprehensive oral examination under general anesthesia. Once your pet is safely anesthetized, our veterinarians perform a detailed evaluation of every tooth and all oral structures, including:
- Teeth and bite (occlusion)
- Gums and periodontal tissues
- Tongue, cheeks, lips, and palate
- Salivary glands and oral mucosa
- The larynx (voice box) and tonsils
- Jaw alignment and oral anatomy
- Any fractured, loose, or missing teeth
- Signs of periodontal disease, oral infections, cysts, or tumors
Each tooth is carefully examined, and periodontal probing is performed to identify pockets of infection, gum recession, tooth resorption, or other abnormalities that would otherwise go undetected.
Our examination is complemented by full-mouth digital dental radiographs (X-rays), which allow us to evaluate the roots of every tooth, surrounding bone, and structures hidden beneath the gumline. Dental X-rays are essential because they reveal conditions that cannot be seen during a visual examination alone, including root abscesses, bone loss, fractured tooth roots, impacted teeth, and painful resorptive lesions.
By combining a thorough oral examination with advanced dental imaging, we can accurately diagnose dental disease and develop the most appropriate treatment plan for your pet. Early detection and treatment of oral disease not only helps preserve healthy teeth but also reduces pain, prevents infection, and contributes to your pet's overall health and quality of life.
Professional Dental Cleaning
Professional dental cleanings are one of the most important steps you can take to protect your pet's overall health. Just like people, dogs and cats accumulate plaque and tartar over time. If left untreated, these deposits lead to periodontal disease, tooth loss, chronic pain, bad breath, and bacterial infections that can affect the heart, liver, and kidneys.
At 5-Points Animal Hospital, every dental cleaning is performed under general anesthesia to ensure your pet's safety, comfort, and the highest standard of care. Anesthesia allows our veterinary team to thoroughly clean every surface of every tooth, including the areas beneath the gumline where periodontal disease begins. Attempting to clean a pet's teeth while they are awake only removes visible tartar and leaves the painful disease below the gums untreated.
Our comprehensive dental cleaning includes:
- Removal of plaque and tartar from all tooth surfaces, including below the gumline.
- Ultrasonic scaling to safely break up hardened calculus.
- Hand scaling to remove remaining deposits and clean difficult-to-reach areas.
- Polishing every tooth to smooth microscopic scratches left by scaling, helping reduce future plaque accumulation.
- Irrigation of the gum pockets to flush away bacteria and debris.
- A complete oral examination and full-mouth dental radiographs to evaluate the health of every tooth and supporting bone.
- Periodontal probing to identify pockets, gum recession, and hidden disease.
- Development of an individualized treatment plan if diseased or damaged teeth require extraction or other dental procedures.
Following your pet's dental cleaning, we will discuss our findings with you, review any dental radiographs, and provide recommendations for home dental care, including brushing techniques, dental diets, treats, and products that can help maintain your pet's oral health between professional cleanings.
Routine professional dental care not only keeps your pet's mouth healthy and their breath fresh—it also helps prevent painful dental disease and contributes to a longer, healthier, and more comfortable life.
Oral Surgery
If your pet has an advanced stage of periodontal disease, surgery may aid tissue regeneration. If we are unable to keep a tooth healthy, surgical extraction may be needed. More complicated surgeries may be recommended to remove tumors or repair palate defects or fractures.