5.	Dental & Oral Health

 Veterinary dentistry is one aspect of pet care which is often overlooked. Whilst the introduction of vaccines and nutritionally balanced diets has almost eradicated distemper and rickets, periodontal disease continues to reach epidemic proportions. By 3 years of age 70% of dogs and 85% of cats have periodontal disease, despite having excellent facilities to treat dental disease. PREVENTION is our main aim. Good pet oral homecare will significantly reduce the onset of periodontal disease. If you would like to discuss the option most suitable for your pet and yourself please come in and discuss this more fully.

An original evaluation of your pet's oral hygiene is required to determine the extent of any disease and to determine a treatment regime. This may vary from home dental care (there are now a number of good products available to make this easier), to scaling and polishing through to endodontics.

We have excellent facilities to perform these treatments including a purpose built table, the latest dental work station and hand tools and a dedicated dental x-ray unit. The equipment is autoclaved and sharpened in-between each procedure. We record and chart each pet's teeth at every procedure. This allows us not only to keep a suitable record, but also allows you to see the areas which require additional attention for home dental care.

In addition we now have the new "im3 42-12 ultrasonic scaler". This is one of the first of these machines in New Zealand and it has proven a fantastic addition to our dental services. The machine is a scaler that removes calculus from the teeth, but it does this with a unique cool tip, that can be used not only on the crown but also in the pocket between the tooth and the gum. This results in a quicker clean (with much less manual cleaning) and less chance of overheating the tooth or damaging the enamel as with a standard scaler - all great benefits for your pets.

For a printable sheet on home dental care click here.