Fort Collins Pet Dental Care - Aspen Grove Veterinary Clinic

State-of-the-art Pet Dental Care

As a smart pet owner, you want your pet to be happy and healthy.

But even an attentive and caring owner can overlook dental care. Symptoms of dental problems are easy to miss, as they aren't often exhibited until they are in advanced stages.

One of the best things a pet owner can do to ensure the overall health and lifespan of their pet is to routinely check their teeth, gums and oral cavity. If left unchecked, bacteria from your pet's mouth can enter the bloodstream and travel to the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver. This can start infections such as pneumonia, endocarditis and nephritis. Almost all dental disease can be prevented with proper management and routine cleanings.

From simple prophylactic cleanings to advanced restorative dentistry, the dental services at Aspen Grove give you the power to protect your loved one from the dangers and discomforts of periodontal disease.

Pet Dental Care You Can Afford

Here at Aspen Grove, we recently upgraded our dental systems to bring you the very best and safest in cleaning and treatment for your pet's oral health. Through high-speed fiber optic and ultrasonic technology, our new machines lessen the procedure and anesthesia time while offering precision cleanings with less trauma to the gums and oral cavity. With a portable, intra-oral dental x-ray machine we are able to easily image the entire tooth and surrounding bone to accurately and quickly diagnose periodontal and bony diseases of the mouth.

Broken or Fractured Teeth and Treatment Options

Dental fractures are a common finding in veterinary medicine. Veterinary dentistry has evolved from the days of simply removing bad teeth from your pet's mouth. At Aspen Grove, we can restore broken or chipped teeth to their full function without having to extract them. Broken or chipped teeth are both painful for your pet and also lead to infection if not fixed properly.

Occasionally, a fracture will only involve the tooth enamel, which is anywhere from 0.1 to 1 mm in thickness. However, more commonly, a fracture will extend deeper into dental tissues exposing dentin and the pulp chamber. Fractures with just dentin exposure have been for years thought of as not a problem and simply left alone. More recent findings show that exposed dentin does, in fact, cause nerve sensitivity and allow bacteria to migrate into the pulp chamber resulting in a fully abscessed tooth.

Pulp, which is the living part of the tooth containing nerves and blood vessels, will never heal on its own if it's exposed. Fractures exposing the pulp chamber require either endodontic treatment (a root canal) or extraction.

Treating the fractured tooth with a light-cured acrylic bonded sealant will immediately seal exposed dentin tubules, prevent infection, cease sensitivity, and speed up overall healing. Before extracting your pet's teeth, ask about this safe and affordable alternative.