Animal Health Solutions

35 Q1 2021 | Animal Health Solutions Previous articles have presented the rationale for expanding your dental services and presented a specific marketing plan you can use to implement a higher level of dentistry in your practice. In this article, we will begin to cover the specific services you need to provide. There are a few basic dental procedures that every small animal veterinarian should be prepared to deliver. There are five basic services that will allow you to deliver 90 percent of all the needed dental care that comes through your doors, and generate 15 to 20 percent of your total practice revenue. You do not need to master advanced procedures such as endodontics or surgical periodontal therapy to deliver the majority of dental care to your patients. These procedures are all well within the grasp of any interested practitioner, and include: 1. A thorough 12-step cleaning 2. Dental radiology 3. Basic periodontal treatment 4. Surgical extractions 5. Bonded sealants for exposed vital dentin Historically, veterinary dentistry has centered on a "scrape and yank" mentality. This type of procedure involves supragingival calculus removal and removal of any mobile teeth. Clients are becoming more educated today, and demand a higher level of service. Mobility is the least common reason for extracting teeth in my referral practice, and this also holds true for many practices that have begun to deliver improved dental care. The key to identifying the painful problems in a patient's oral cavity is a thorough 12-step cleaning procedure, which provides a consistent approach to identifying existing pathology. The basic steps include: History and physical exam – provides many clues to what you might find in the oral cavity. For example, dogs with fear of thunderstorms frequently have fractured teeth that require treatment. Initial oral survey – after anesthetic induction, look for any obvious areas of dental problems such as fractured teeth, mobile teeth, discolored teeth, oral tumors, etc. Anything out of the ordinary should be noted. 1 2 Supragingival scaling – this is the least important part of the 12-step cleaning, but the most visible to the owner. Typically this will involve a combination of ultrasonic scaling and hand instrumentation. Note that this is the only part of the 12-step cleaning that can be done in a non-anesthetized patient, and the quality of the scaling will be poor. 3

• Cover