Oral Health Services
At Good Sam, our comprehensive oral healthcare is a multi-step process that ensures the most comprehensive quality care! Our goal is to simplify and streamline a complex process without sacrificing quality or transparency.
Before Anesthesia
Medical Record Collection and Review
We will gladly reach out to your full-service veterinarian and facilitate the transfer of your pet’s medical records. Our doctor and medical team will review of any history provided by your pet's full-service veterinarian.
This valuable information may provide clues to specific dental issues and potentially provide insight to systemic problems.
Pre-Surgical Examination
A thorough examination of the entire patient is performed the morning of the appointment. This is our opportunity to consider the whole patient regarding risk and rewards of anesthesia and dental health treatments.
Pre-Surgical Bloodwork
We recommend pre-anesthesia bloodwork for all our patients, and it is required for our geriatric patients. CBC and chemistry analysis will help the veterinarian identify underlying health issues and determine which medications are safe and appropriate for your pet. We collect and interpret bloodwork the same day as surgery.
- Required for dogs 7 years or older
- Recommend for dogs 6 years and younger
- Required for cats 9 years or older
- Recommend for cats 8 years or younger
Anesthetized Oral Assessment
All oral health services require your pet to be completely anesthetized. We work diligently to ensure that every anesthetic episode is as safe as possible.
Anesthesia
- Pre-anesthesia medication
- Sedative, preemptive pain control
- Induction and maintenance medications
- IV access and fluid therapy
- Monitoring before, during, and after procedure
- Pulse Ox, ECG, blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate
- Temperature support
Oral Assessment
Once your pet is safely asleep, our veterinary team will complete a thorough oral examination and assessment. We will be looking for any signs of oral disease or damage including:
- Tooth mobility
- Periodontal pocketing
- Gingival decay
- Bone decay
- Abscess formation
- Tumors and cancer
- Enamel damage
- Tooth fractures
- Jaw fracture
Occasionally, owners are shocked at how much disease we discover in their pet's mouth. Keep in mind, disease can hide under tarter accumulation, under the gum line or deep inside the mouth where a painful pet is not willing to let you look while they're awake. That's why safe anesthesia and thorough assessments are so important for diagnosing and treating dental disease!
Baseline Assessments
- Dental probing
- Dental charting
- Complete gingival and soft tissue examination
Radiograph Assessment
We recommend full mouth dental radiographs for all our oral health patients. X-rays allow for assessment of the teeth and supporting structures hidden under the gumline.
- Anesthesia
- Baseline assessments
- Non-surgical treatments
- Recovery care
- Full mouth radiographs
Oral Health Treatments
After the necessary assessments have been completed, we will immediately move into the treatment phase of the process. We will NOT be calling you before proceeding with treatment, including extracting teeth.
Non-Surgical Treatments
Sometimes disease or damage has not progressed to a point where a tooth needs to be extracted. This is good news! In these cases, our team will scale and polish the healthy teeth and recommend regular dental cleanings, close veterinary monitoring, or at-home oral care to prevent or slow down the progression of disease. We love it when we can prevent disease AND save teeth!
- Ultrasonic scaling
- Polishing
- Fluoride application
- At-home care plan
Surgical Tooth Extractions
In many cases, disease or damage has progressed to such extreme levels, the only treatment option available is extraction.
Prior to any extraction, a nerve block providing 6-8 hours of local pain control will be administered.
Frequently, incisions in the adjacent gum tissue are utilized to create a flap and provide access to the tooth. Often, bone that overlies each root is removed, and the tooth is sectioned into individual roots. The remaining tooth socket is flushed to remove any debris, and the surgery site is closed with absorbable sutures.
Many pet owners are concerned their pet will not be able to eat after a tooth (or teeth) has been extracted. Chances are your pet was not using those painful teeth anyway! After the healing phase, most pets return to their typical eating and playing habits (many pets even eat better and play more after dental disease has been treated!)
- All surgical extractions completed that day
Recovery Care
Immediately following your pet's anesthesia event and/or surgery, they are moved to our recovery area where they are closely supervised by our medical team and supported while they wake up. Before pickup or transfer to an overnight clinic, you will be provided:
- Aftercare plan
- Medical record
- Necessary go-home medications
- Re-check/follow-up appointment
Additional Oral Surgeries
Sometimes these surgeries can be elected at the time of scheduling oral health services due to previous veterinary recommendations. However, in the event that Good Sam discovers surprise oral disease during the anesthetized oral assessment and recommends one or more of the following surgical treatment plans, we will reach out and ensure you have the option of electing or declining.
Preventive Extractions
- Crowding
- Malocclusion
- Deciduous teeth removal
Chronic Ulcerative Paradental Stomatitis - CUPS (Dogs) and Stomatitis (Cats) Treatment
- Full mouth extractions
- Post-op dental radiographs
Before
After
