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Veterinary
medicine is advancing by leaps and bounds. As of January 2008 we will now have
digital dental xrays available! Until recently, dental xrays were
not available at all. If we really needed to see something we had to do skull
xrays of the pet under anesthesia, keeping in mind the smaller the pet the more
difficult it would be to see detail. In recent years dental xray machines have
become available to the veterinary profession, allowing us to see the roots and
other structures under the gum line. However, they still had a lot of
limitations, the biggest being developing the xrays. Each tiny xray would need
to be processed in 3 tanks to develop it, taking a large amount of time,
chemicals and expense. Now, we actually have a digital dental machine
available! This takes the picture and downloads it to our laptop nearby within
20 seconds and allows us to enlarge it or change the contrast. This allows us
to inspect the root, pulp cavity, periodontal ligaments and bone easily. Up
until now we had to make educated guesses as to whether or not a tooth needs
extracted based on clinical signs, disease in and around the tooth and depth of
the pocket around the tooth (and, of course, if it is loose!). Now there is no
guessing involved. We will be able to see damage. Sadly, this means more
teeth may actually need extracted since we usually tend to err on the side of
caution. However, anyone who has had their pet’s teeth cleaned (or even
extracted) knows how much better they feel to have their diseased teeth taken
care of. |
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