Category Archives: Features

Root Canal Therapy

More often than not a veterinarian is going to recommend extraction of a damaged or diseased tooth. There are several instances, however, where advanced dentistry is going to be not just a pleasant alternative but a better alternative. Some teeth are strategic for the integrity of the jaw, some are strategic in use, some are both. In very specific circumstances it is preferable to leave a strategic tooth in place whenever possible. Root canal therapy (often simply called a root canal) is one method of preserving a tooth that may have otherwise required extraction. This week I will outline the steps to a root canal therapy.

As veterinarians we all dread this conversation. Cancer carries with it so many different stigmas and connotations that I’ve heard no less than a dozen different viewpoints from the same owner during the same conversation. It is an emotionally charged, painful subject not helped at all by the fact that quite frequently we can not win.

From my perspective, it is also not helped at all by the fact that it typically happens to older pets. I hear it all the time, “Well, if he were six or seven we might do the treatment but he’s thirteen. He lived a good life.” While on the surface I can’t disagree with that statement I can’t help but have a slightly different perspective.

Read more at: http://rutlandherald.typepad.com/vets_view/2012/06/penning-a-guest-blog.html

Traumatic malocclusion.

This week I am going to illustrate a problem with a story. The pup in these pictures has a single off set canine tooth due to an injury. Every time he closed his mouth the tooth would strike against the roof of his mouth causing chronic irritation to the soft tissue.

This is a fairly common finding in both dogs and cats though it is typically a developmental issue and usually involves both canines. We call them base narrow canines and they can be very painful and can cause serious issues especially if the canines are allowed to break through the palate into the sinuses. Think chronic infection. Continue reading →

From Vet’s View, by Heath McNutt, a veterinarian in Rutland.

Canine Urolithiasis.
This week and next week we are going to discuss canine urinary stones. While dogs and cats can certainly get stones in their kidneys they more frequently get them in their bladders. This is ultimately the better location as it is far easier to retrieve stones from a bladder than it is from the kidneys. There are several different types of stones that dogs and cats can from in the bladder and today we will discuss struvite stones. Next week’s topic will be oxalate stones…