SMILE - Cleaning Teeth

Finally, we are ready to actually clean the teeth!

The licensed veterinary technician performs the cleaning much as a dental hygienist does with people.  The LVT will start by assessing the overall health of the mouth by looking at the teeth to see if any are broken or missing, noting any discoloration, excessive tartar buildup, and/or excessive wear; by looking at the gums to note any redness, swelling, or presence of pus; by looking for the presence of a gingival pocket which is a space where the gums have become detached from the tooth; and/or looking for tumors or gingival hyperplasia (excessive growth of gum tissue); and by looking at the tongue, cheeks, and other structures of the mouth and throat that are visible.

Here you can see Heidi's dirty teeth.  There is a little bit of blood on her upper back teeth.
This happens when your gums are not very healthy.

Dental scaling is the term for cleaning the teeth.  A pointy metal instrument scrapes the tartar from the visible portion of the tooth as well as a short distance under the gumline.  Dental cleanings mainly involved the use of these hand scalers.  However, these days the majority of veterinarians use a dental cavitron scaler which is a small handheld device with a metal tip which sprays water or a solution of chlorhexidine (a disinfectant) and water combined with ultrasonic pulsations.  It's the use of ultrasonic waves that makes cleaning teeth less painful and time consuming and much easier than hand scaling.

The ultrasonic scaler can be seen above.

Scaling the teeth, whether by hand or machine, creates a roughened surface that is a magnet to new tartar growth.  If this roughened surface is not smoothed, it would be worse than not having your teeth cleaned at all!  This is why teeth are polished after they are cleaned.  Keeping tartar away is the key to good dental health.  Tartar builds up on teeth after 24 hours of being dirty.  This is why we, as humans, generally clean our teeth at least twice a day.  This keeps tartar from firmly attaching to our teeth.  This is also why brushing our pet's teeth is a kind way to keep their teeth healthy.  Brushing keeps their mouths healthy which keeps them healthy!

Once the cleaning and polishing is complete, the LVT will get the veterinarian to examine the mouth and share any observations noted during their initial examination.  The veterinarian performs their own examination with a periodontal probe.  The probes have markings on them to show varying lengths in millimeters.  This allows them to measure how deep a gingival pocket is.  The deeper the pocket the more chance there is for bacteria to enter the bloodstream.  This bacteria travelling to the heart is what can cause infections that damage the heart valves and cause other life-threatening complications.

The periodontal probe shown has very faint markings.
The bottom two are 3mm each and the upper two are 2mm each.

Look how far back Heidi's teeth go!

During the examination, the veterinarian uses a chart to keep track of the observations.  Missing or broken teeth, which teeth are extracted, presence of gingival pockets and how deep they are, presence of tumors or hyperplasia, etc. are all noted on the this card which is attached to the chart as part of the permanent medical record.

Mojo's chart is shown (see his feet?)  Circled teeth are missing.
X's are teeth that have just been extracted.

Luckily, Heidi did not need any teeth pulled this time!

Shiny, white(ish), and clean!

Next will be a post about the tumors we found (when the techs tried to place Heidi's IV catheter) and how they were removed.  For not very weak stomachs (only due to mildly graphic pictures)!