Anesthetic Free Cleanings

[feemandvm]

Many things can help with keeping the teeth clean:

 

1. Daily brushing

2. Water additives such as OxyFresh

3. Various chews (raw meaty bones, greenies, etc.)

4. Dental diets

 

One thing that should not be on anyone's list are anesthetic free cleanings. If you are interested in whitening your dogs smile then by all means pursue this option. If you are interested in the medical benefits of cleaning your pet's teeth, do not!

Anesthetic free cleanings are NOT able to clean under the gumline where the most important tartar is accumulating. You cannot accurately probe or examine teeth to look for periodontal pockets or other evidence of disease in an awake animal no matter how good they are. On the surface people want to pursue these options out of a fear of anesthesia or a lower cost. People are mislead to believe that this is a good alternative to a true cleaning in an anesthetized patient. In reality the cleaning makes the teeth look bettter while leaving the most important tartar behind. The benefits of longer life, lower incidence of kidney/liver/heart disease, etc. are completely missed by an anesthetic free cleaning. If people truly understood what they were getting with this procedure, no-one would pursue it.

Here is the real kicker... not only does an anesthetic free cleaning leave behind the most important tartar but it also scratches the tooth making it more suseptible to disease in the future unless the person cleaning the teeth spends a good amount of time doing a good polishing on every surface of the tooth.

Final point... I would have a real problem subjecting my own hound to a procedure that every specialist in that field felt was bad! If every veterinary pharmacologist said that Rimadyl was dangerous I would never use it on my hound. If every veterinary internal medicine specialist agreed that Brand X vaccines were harmful I would never use them. Every board certified veterinary dentist believes that anesthetic free cleanings are a bad idea so why is it again that they are done? If the argument is that "Well I've done it for years and never had a problem" then my reply will be that I've heard that line from owners as to why they will continue to feed Ol Roy or Kibbles and Bits. I heard that same line from another owner that periodically gave their dog ADVIL for arthritis. I tried to show this owner that it is TOXIC (in some cases in a single dose) but she's "always done it and never had a problem". A member of GT has in their signature that "the plural of anecdote is not data" and I can't think of anything more fitting in this case!

 

 

http://avdc.org/position-statements.html#cadswa

 

 

[MarcR]

I think people may confuse their own cleaning with what their dog needs. I've had good success with CET Hextra chews to keep the tartar down, but when it's time for a cleaning, I want it to be thorough (which means anesthesia).

[kjw]

I was wondering when you'd weigh in . Thanks, Bill.

[Stoney]

Hi Dr Bill. Just a question (because I don't know, not because I want to stir up anything) - are dog teeth/gums/mouths that much different than peoples? I wonder because I have never really heard about people having super deep cleanings, just scaling and polishing. What is it about dog tooth structure that makes the super deep cleaning necessary - or is it more closely related to the fact that many owners aren't correctly caring for their dogs teeth?

[Guest SusanP]

Wow, I used to work as a chairside assistant to a periodontist, and I can tell you that *lots* of folks (probably most of them, eventually) need deep scaling below the gumline!

[MarcR]

Wow, I used to work as a chairside assistant to a periodontist, and I can tell you that *lots* of folks (probably most of them, eventually) need deep scaling below the gumline!

 

Yup... been there... had it done

[feemandvm]

Hi Dr Bill. Just a question (because I don't know, not because I want to stir up anything) - are dog teeth/gums/mouths that much different than peoples? I wonder because I have never really heard about people having super deep cleanings, just scaling and polishing. What is it about dog tooth structure that makes the super deep cleaning necessary - or is it more closely related to the fact that many owners aren't correctly caring for their dogs teeth?

 

The most critical tartar in an animals mouth and I would also assume a humans's is the subgingival tartar. Humans go in and get their teeth cleaned every 6 months and it is a true "prophy" to some extent b/c most humans don't actually have calculus on their teeth or periodontal disease with each cleaning. We call them prophys in veterinary medicine but the term is inaccurate. No-one actually gets their dogs teeth cleaned when it would actually be a prophy. We wait until they develop mild periodontal disease (we hope not severe) and then clean them.

 

Now anesthetic free cleaning will clean under the gumline. So by cleaning the crown of the tooth you lull yourself into a false sense of security because the teeth "look good". Therein lies one of the real dangers in these cleanings.

 

As for humans and their teeth... honestly I am not qualified to answer questions on human disease or cleanings but I would also assume that subgingival tartar is also very important... just that it may be less of an issue in SOME humans as we brush 2-3 times/day, floss daily and get cleanings done every 6 months.

 

 

[MarcR]

Hi Dr Bill. Just a question (because I don't know, not because I want to stir up anything) - are dog teeth/gums/mouths that much different than peoples? I wonder because I have never really heard about people having super deep cleanings, just scaling and polishing. What is it about dog tooth structure that makes the super deep cleaning necessary - or is it more closely related to the fact that many owners aren't correctly caring for their dogs teeth?

 

I can only speak from personal experience, not as a dentist. Yes, people do in fact need super deep cleanings. People do develop periodontal disease and the associated deep pocketing (sometimes because of less than diligent dental hygeine, sometimes inspite of it). I've had deep scaling done and also periodontal surgery (which reduces pocket depth). Although I had local anesthesia some patients do get a more general anesthetic (ie gas). But somehow, I can't picture a dog having a deep cleaning with a shot of novacain.

Edited August 5, 2007 by MarcR