A Tour of a Dental Procedure

Here is one of our patients, Henry.

1) Checking in the morning of his dental procedure.


2)  In his cage.


3)  About to have his pre-surgical exam.


4)  Having blood drawn to have pre-surgical bloodwork done.


5)  Our assistant Mike running the blood panel on our in-house lab equipment.


6)  Our doctor administering pre-sedation medications which includes a sedative and pain medication.


7)  After pre-medications.


9)  Tray set up with items needed for the procedure;  endotube and tie, medications, polish, and flouride.


9)  Getting started....pre-medications have taken effect.


10)  Intubated.


11)  Hooked to the anesthesia machine.


12)  Heart rate monitor and Pulse Oximeter.  This measures the heart rate and rhythm and the amount of oxygen in the blood.


13)  IV Cateter is placed.


14) Teeth before procedure...his teeth were at a level 2 (Early Periodontitis...attached gum is inflamed and swollen, mouth can be painful and odor begins to be noticable).


15)  During the procedure, his teeth were probed and scaled.


16)  Taking a dental X-ray.


17)  Developing a dental x-ray.


18)  X-ray of a tooth with a bad root.


19)  Tools the uses to extract a tooth.


20)  The bad tooth must be extracted!  The doctor is placing sutures to close the gap where the tooth once was.


21)  Polishing the teeth.


22)  Teeth after the dental cleaning.


23)  Waking up from anesthesia.


24)  Awake.


25)  Going home.


Each dental patient goes home with:
Instructions of how to brush,
A tooth paste sample, &
A t/d 'dental' diet sample.

One of our technicians/assistants will also go over all instructions and questions pertaining to the pet with the owner before releasing the pet to go home.