Oral Exam
Northwest Neighborhood Veterinary Hospital’s veterinarians offer complete oral exams. We strongly recommend pets visit us at stage 1 or 2 of periodontal disease for a dental exam and cleaning, as the procedure is less invasive in the earlier stages. At stage 3, the disease has already compromised the teeth’s supporting structures and integrity.
Please note that with each subsequent stage, we must spend a proportionate amount of time cleaning and may need to perform dental surgery or extractions, thereby increasing the cost of dental care.
Unlike humans, animals need to be administered general anesthesia for a dental cleaning. As the photos of each stage of periodontal disease show, tartar is quite unsightly – but the problems under the gum line are a lot worse. We can adequately clean under the gum line, visualize all of the tooth surfaces, and perform any supporting procedure with general anesthesia.
