Teeth Extractions

Morgan Veterinary Practice will make every effort to prolong the life of your pet’s teeth, but sometimes dog dental disease or cat dental disease has progressed so far that extractions remain the only treatment option.

When performed appropriately, dog dental extractions can be a beneficial and significant oral procedure to ensure your dog’s dental health. Our veterinarians at Morgan Veterinary Practice have the proper training, skills, instruments, and experience to conduct this delicate procedure in a timely fashion. Extraction of teeth is a considerably extensive process, and we have successfully conducted multiple teeth extractions and even full-mouth extractions on many canines. It demonstrates our veterinarian’s skills, proficiency, and passion for pet dentistry. Regardless of the size, age, and breed of your dog, you can always count on us when it comes to performing dog dental extractions safely, painlessly, and affordably.

Cat dental extractions generally take place to eliminate oral pain caused by diseased teeth or gum inflammation. Many cat dental diseases require conclusive identification with dental X-rays. Our veterinarians at Morgan Veterinary Practice are experienced and trained to perform cat dental extractions by using diverse techniques and have done full mouth extractions in cats to treat conditions like resorptive lesions and gingivostomatitis. Depending on your cat’s unique oral condition, we cautiously select a teeth removal method to minimize pain and other potential complexities.

• Simple: This usually applies to the front incisors where the only requirement is for the gum to be elevated away from the tooth and the tooth gently removed without much surgical intervention.
• Complex: This applies to all other extractions, including tooth resorptive lesions and teeth with multiple roots, which required surgical extraction.
• Canine: This applies to both upper and lower canines. These teeth are designed to rip and tear and hold onto prey without snapping. As a result, they have very long roots anchored deep within the bone of the upper and lower jaw and require a longer surgical procedure time for extraction.
  

First, we place a local anesthetic nerve block to desensitize the tooth. This reduces the amount of anesthetic gas we’ll need later to keep the patient asleep. This is great for blood pressure, body temperature, and a more rapid recovery. Most importantly, it dramatically decreases pain during and after the surgery. The nerve block actually lasts up to six hours into the recovery period.

Once the block has taken effect, we elevate a flap of gum tissue to expose the jaw bone. A high-speed drill is used to cut the tooth into sections to allow for easier removal. The tooth is removed using instruments called elevators. Once the tooth is removed, the socket is cleaned.

A post-extraction X-ray is taken to make sure that all of the roots have been removed. We then close over the socket using the gum flap to prevent food from being lodged later on. The flap is sutured with a very fine, absorbable suture.

Your pet will be given additional pain relief medication and antibiotics. These are used in the immediate post-operative period and you will continue to administer them at home according to the labeled instructions.

The remaining healthy teeth are polished and finally, the mouth is flushed with an antiseptic oral rinse.

Call (239) 471-0501 or visit us online to schedule an appointment.