Poppy is a sweet heart girl that presented to Dentistry For Animals because of an overgrowth of her gingiva. Gingival hyperplasia is a common occurrence in boxers. This can be severe causing entrapment of food and hair debris in the mouth. This leads to chronic gingivitis and periodontal disease. Occasionally these can turn into cancerous lesions, so it is important to monitor these growths carefully. We performed a full mouth gingivectomy and gingivoplasty for Poppy. [...]

Erri is a K9 Unit Officer with the Salinas Police Department. Having functional teeth is very important for him to continue doing his job. Unfortunately he likes to chew on his kennel in the police cruiser and damaged his teeth. We placed crowns on three of his canine teeth, allowing him to get back out there and help his officers fight crime. Thank you Erri and the Salinas Police Department for all you do! 

Penny, an 8 year old Papillion, came to the clinic with stage 2, 3 and 4 periodontal disease. All the teeth with stage 4 periodontal disease were extracted, but the teeth with stage 2-3 periodontal disease were able to be saved so long as Penny’s mom felt comfortable brushing Penny’s teeth daily and returning for more dental rechecks and procedures. After Penny’s mom agreed to brush, we performed closed root planning beneath the gum line [...]

Our pet of the month is Bean! Bean is a 12 week old dachshund puppy with an overbite. The deciduous mandibular canine teeth were causing palatal trauma just inside the upper canine teeth. When the deciduous canines are retained they can cause periodontal disease which will damage the adult canines. To prevent the trauma to the palate, Dr. Force extracted the deciduous mandibular canine teeth, before any periodontal disease formed and saved the adult canines. [...]

This month our special pet is Zoey. Zoey is a 8 month old Shih Tzu who came to Dentistry for Animals with a jaw fracture (held in place with a muzzle), retained deciduous teeth and a couple unerupted teeth. Dr. Force did a difficult repair on the fracture with figure 8 wire, around a partial erupted tooth, and composite splint. Even though Zoey went through a long recovery, with a muzzle on her nose the [...]