Cleaning reveals dental issues in cat

Dear Dr. John,

I recently brought my nine-year-old cat in for a dental cleaning and what I thought was 1-2 extractions on teeth that my vet identified as needing to come out on an oral exam done a few weeks ago. On the day of the procedure, I received a phone call from the hospital notifying me that more extractions would be necessary based on x-rays taken that morning under anesthesia. The cost went up considerably too. I was informed that the x-rays identified that there were huge defects on one upper fang tooth and smaller ones on the other three fangs. Will my cat have trouble eating when losing so many teeth? Since when did x-rays become standard in doing cleanings on pet mouths and why wouldn’t they remove all the teeth with defects or do fillings? N.C.

Dear N.C.,

Dental radiographs in pets are becoming the proper standard of care and is seen in more practices all the time.  Dental x-rays allow a veterinarian to visualize what is hidden behind the gumline as well as defects not readily or easily seen on an oral exam, especially if the defects are on the inside surfaces of the teeth.

That may have been the case with your cat’s canine tooth (the fang) and it sounds as if that was a resorptive lesion, something commonly seen in cats. When this kind of evaluation reveals more problems, it is fair to charge more for the additional work needed. There are board certified veterinary dental specialists who have additional training to deal with difficult extractions and your cat is better off having them do it if needed.

Cats and dogs can do very well having many teeth extracted and some cats are actually better off when they have severe oral disease and have all their teeth removed! They can eat perfectly well, and existing pain is removed. More often than not extractions are done in pets, but fillings can be an option in the correct circumstances but is typically only done by specialists and, in my experience, more often in dogs than cats. I expect that your cat will be better off after all of the dental work is done.

Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic. He can be reached at 781-899-9994.