03/14/2024
Day four of Bernard's dental!
We have our dental x-ray results, and they are not pretty.
Poor Bernard has severe feline tooth resorption. This is a common, but poorly understood dental condition.
You can read more about tooth resorption:
https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/tooth-resorption
https://vetmed.illinois.edu/2023/02/15/feline-tooth-resorption-treatment-options/
๐ฑ Thankfully for dogs, this is a cat only disease! ๐ฑ
Unfortunately for Bernard, the only treatment for the type of resorption he has is extraction of the damaged teeth.
First, Dr. Patton performs a dental nerve block. Just like in human dentistry, our veterinarians make the tooth numb before we work on it.
You'll notice Dr. Patton is wearing a jacket, hair cover, mask and eye protection. Unlike during abdominal surgery, where surgeons where masks to protect the patient, all this gear is to protect Dr. Patton. During the dental, we use an ultrasonic scaler to clean the teeth and a high speed drill when we need to extract teeth. Both of these can result in bacteria, water, calculus or even teeth flying through the air!
Next, Dr. Patton carefully lifts the gums away from the teeth and underlying jaw bone. She uses the drill to section the teeth into pieces, then gently removes each piece. Finally, she sutures the gum closed back over the empty tooth socket.
After extractions, we take another x-ray to make sure all the pieces of the tooth are gone.
Once the diseased teeth are removed, Dr. Patton scales, cleans and polishes each remaining tooth.
Finally when anesthesia is over, patients recover in our treatment room, where they are directly supervised until they are able to sit up. Bernard stayed nice and warm during his dental, but for patients who get a little cold, they remain wrapped in a Bair hugger (warm air blanket) until they are back to normal temperature.
Tomorrow we will look at Bernard's post dental instructions, and check in with how he is doing at home!