#veterinary dentistry

[thesecretlifeofavettech-blog]

To all my amazing and fantastic followers,

What a rollercoaster this pandemic has been, and especially in the veterinary field. I can’t even begin to tell you how burned out we are as an entire field but what I can tell you is that we are still here. Still working tirelessly to make sure that your pets have the best veterinary care we can provide. Still working insane hours to fit in as many sick patients as we can with the overbooked ER rooms. Still crying with you, and laughing with you, and celebrating successes with you.

We are human. Just like you. We make mistakes like you. We deserve a little grace and compassion just like you.

I am thankful for all the clients that take the time to tell us how appreciative they are, who send us lunches when they know we are overbooked and understaffed, and who embrace us with kind words and actions during these difficult times.

I am not thankful for the clients that berate us when they can’t come inside the clinic with their pet, who write nasty reviews on yelp because we couldn’t fit them in to an already slammed day, and who verbally harass us when we can’t fulfill their request immediately. We don’t deserve this treatment and it seems to get worse every month.

Take a little time to appreciate the people in your life that care for your furry friend. We are in this field because we love animals. Not because we make a bunch of money or for fun or for the “puppies and kittens”. We often are so tired when we get home that we can’t give our own pets the extra love and attention they deserve and that devastates us.

[ask-a-vetblr]

this might be weird but im curious about it because my dog will be having a tooth removed in a couple months. the tooth is healthy but has what may be an epulis next to it (hopefully anyway, but im having it biopsied as well), so i elected to have the tooth removed as well to prevent reoccurrence. so my q is, do owners ever ask for the extracted tooth, given of course that it isnt rotten or broken? and are vets allowed to give them?

gettingvetted here.

Nope, that's pretty common! In my practice we offer the owners the extracted teeth even if they are rotten or broken. I have one tooth root from one of my own cats' dentals too. Make sure to ask beforehand but there shouldn't be any issues with it!

[thevettechdiaries]

I’ve had a bad day, so let’s talk about the things we love in veterinary medicine. What is your favorite thing to do at work? It could be as simple as setting a catheter or as complicated as emergency medicine.

My favorite thing to do is dentistry. I find it immensely satisfying to clean tartar off teeth and how beautiful they look at the end. I can legally perform some extractions and I even enjoy doing that.

Tell me friends, what do you enjoy most?

[drferox]

Veterinary Story Time - Colleagues & Gross

I hate dentistry. No offense to those that enjoy it, but I loathe it.

It’s not so much the act of dentistry itself, but a combination of the horribly infected sewer mouths, my displeasure in needing to remove teeth (the pressure hurts my hands and arms, I had to get physio after removing a staffy’s molars once), and this persistent yet reasonable fear that I will come across a patient with their teeth so badly infected that the surrounding bone will have become as soft as cheese, and I will either break the jaw by touching it or my dental instruments will pass right through the bone and go up into the eye socket.

I have an extremely detailed and well informed imagination.

This sort of situation, by the way, is perfectly plausible when the dental disease is extreme, and it often is in dogs and cats because owners might not care, or simply might not look, or think it’s normal for their pets to have bad breath and teeth covered in grey slime.

So if I have the opportunity to responsibly avoid doing a dental procedure I will gladly hand it over to a colleague. Honestly, the whole reason I tried out emergency medicine was because I mistakenly thought I’d never have to do a dental or a skin case ever again.

Admittedly, you don’t see many dentals in emergency work. So when I had a colleague locuming at the general practice clinic having done emergency work only for a decade, I thought it was a great opportunity for them to do the dental, while there were two other vets in the building to offer advice or lend a hand should they find themselves out of practice.

Besides, even though it had been booked in for me, I hadn’t seen the dog before, so it wasn’t like I was requested. I happily transferred that dental and prepared to have a happier day.

However, this wouldn’t be much of a story if that was all that happened.

The dog was mouth shy, and impossible to look into its mouth while awake. That’s fair enough, if they’re painful then they certainly don’t want strangers poking and prodding their mouths, and this dog was certainly not a regular at the clinic. So he was anaesthetised and then my colleague could get a proper look.

The next thing I know, the unconscious dog is being carried to the Xray table for a skull Xray.

Poor thing had a fractured jaw.

It’s dental disease was so bad, so rotten, that the middle of the mandible had dissolved with the infection, and spontaneously fractured before presenting to the clinic.

The mouth was like a sewer. Teeth were falling out, and teeth had already fallen out, it was a nightmare of a mouth, and we didn’t know how long the dog had been living like this.

And it still had to have all its teeth out to prevent it getting worse. Bone can’t heal with an infection still there.

So sorry, my dear colleague. But better you than me!

This story was nominated and viewed early by my Patreon supporters.

[scandinavian-vet]

Icky yucky chihuahua/maltese teeth. 

[iloveveterinary]

Periodontal & Systemic Disease Connection in Dogs & Cats - Video by Dr. Brett Beckman

Periodontal & Systemic Disease Connection in Dogs & Cats – Video by Dr. Brett Beckman

This video discusses the connection between periodontal & systemic disease in dogs and cats, citing research to support the fact that in dogs infection in the mouth can lead to multiple organ disease.

Watch the video below and learn more.



  If you liked this video and want to learn more about veterinary dentistry, read “Veterinary Dentistry with Dr. Brett Beckman” on our blog.

View On WordPress

[booprenorphine]

Gum disease and tartar build-up in a Basset hound. I was tempted to carve something in that huge 'rock', there was enough raw material for Mount Rushmore smh. Imagine The Smell™.

[mementoviverebeatus]

19 year old African lion with an old complicated crown fracture. You can tell it was fractured when he was young by the size of the pulp chamber.