So What is a "Dental?"

We hear it all the time: “The Vet said my dog needs a dental.” What does that mean? Not very much, as it turns out. Read onto learn the truth about pet dentistry.



So what in the world is a ‘dental’ and why does my dog need one? You never hear human Dentists talking about ‘dentals.’ That makes about as much sense as a Physician telling you that you need a ‘medical.’ A medical what? An operation, an injection, an x-ray, what? The truth is, in veterinary dentistry it wasn’t very long ago that we really didn’t know how to do very much. In the early days, about all veterinary dentists could do was scale the tartar off teeth or else pull them out. Most of the time, most patients got some scaling and some pulling. So it made a lot of sense to just lump everything together and call it a ‘dental,’ short for ‘dental procedure.’ So, the term ‘dental’ was applied to any procedure that happened inside the mouth.

Human Dentists can do all kinds of things. They can clean teeth, whiten teeth, straighten teeth, fill cavities in teeth, cap teeth, put veneers on teeth, do root canal on teeth, root plane teeth, x-ray teeth, do periodontal treatments on teeth, etc etc. So when a Dentist examines you and finds problems, he won’t tell you that you need a ‘dental.’ Instead, he’ll tell you that you need this tooth scaled, you need root planning on that tooth, and the other tooth needs some periodontal antibiotics implanted.

Veterinary Dentistry has reached nearly the same level these days. Rather than just extract teeth that are having problems, we can do scaling, closed root planning, surgical root planning, periodontal treatments, dental sealants, simple and surgical extractions, even root canals and crowns. So at this clinic, we are no longer talking about doing ‘dentals’ because we have realized that the word ‘dental’ really doesn’t mean anything.



When you call up and ask “how much is a dental?,” there is almost no way to know how to answer that question because there is almost no way to know what all the problems are. Many pets have teeth in various stages of disease in their mouths all at the same time, and each tooth may need a different treatment. Moreover, there is no way to find out what all the problems are until after your pet is asleep, and we can probe and x-ray the teeth, just like your dentist does to you. Click Here for more information on periodontal disease.

I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking, “Doggy dental x-rays? Isn’t that a little much?” Well, consider this: There are two studies done by Doctors Verstraete, Kass and Terpak at UC Davis that show that 30% of dogs and 40% of cats will have diseased teeth that can only be detected by x-rays. Those are pretty strong odds. And remember, it doesn’t matter how clean and shiny the crowns are, if there is disease or infection under the gums, we haven’t really done our patient any good. There will still be infected teeth leaking toxins and bacteria into the system 24/7.

So If you call up a veterinary clinic and ask them “How much is a dental?” and they quote you a fee over the phone, unless your pet is quite young and has minimal dental problems, you can rest assured that they will either not treat all the disease present in your pet’s mouth or else they will end up charging you more than they quoted. So don’t let a low phone quote fool you. Just as a contractor that bids a job sight unseen is unlikely to do a good job, well, you get the picture.

At Sunnyside Veterinary Clinic, we will do a free dental exam for patients with dental problems. It’s free because all we can really do in most awake patients is to get a general idea about what shape the mouth is in. This will allow us to make a broad estimate of what we think it will cost to diagnose and treat all the disease present in your pet’s mouth. For pets with no serious periodontal disease, meaning no infections under the gums, a dental scaling and polishing costs $138.

But let’s keep things honest and real here. The fact of the matter is that most pets over 4 or 5 years of age have other problems that we will not be able to identify while they are awake in the exam room. Some of the problems will take x-rays to identify. Some pets will be old enough, or have some other health problems that make it necessary to do some pre-anesthetic blood testing. That’s why we make our estimates in the form of a range. And remember, it doesn’t matter how clean and shiny the crowns are, if we leave infection and disease below the gum line, we haven’t really done our patient any good.