* $1 Dental Exam! 

(For existing clients, whose fur babies are up to date on their exams and vaccines)

Advanced Dental Procedures at Arroyo

With the addition of Dr. Kornfeld, a residency-trained Veterinary Dentist, we are able to offer more than just a dental cleaning.  With his advanced training, Dr. Kornfeld has helped so many of our patients to preserve their most critical teeth in the mouth instead of dental extractions. We have been routinely performing procedures like root canal treatments, open root planning and biopolymers over the last year. Dr. Kornfeld is available with his services on Wednesdays and alternate Saturdays.

For most of us, a visit to the dentist is scary. We tend to extrapolate the same feelings for dental exam visits for our furry friends. Unfortunately, this fear may lead to undiagnosed dental disease for your loving pet. Dogs have a 7 times faster rate of plaque formation than humans. By 3 years of age, 75% of dogs and 80% of cats may have dental disease.

At Arroyo Veterinary Clinic we offer routine periodontal therapy which includes cleaning, polishing, and teeth x-rays. We also provide advanced treatments like composite restorations to treat chipped teeth, root canals to salvage non-vital teeth as well as a bone augmentation to treat bone loss from advanced periodontal therapy. All these therapies may help us to avoid advanced dental disease requiring the only treatment option, the dreaded teeth extractions.

Call us now to get more information on our dentistry services. 510-278-8440.

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The Tale of a Painful Mouth

We recently helped a 12 year terrier pet to get his smile back. The pet parent brought him in for a dental exam after noticing. bad breath. Upon careful dental exam, a big area of gum loss with puss was observed between the back pre-molar and molar teeth of his upper jaw. The owner was shocked to see the extent of periodontal disease because his pet would not allow the owner to check his mouth because of a painful mouth.

Periodontal therapy with bone augmentation was recommended to salvage these very important teeth. While under anesthesia, dental x-rays was performed to determine the extent of dental disease. Significant bone loss was observed on the x-ray image. (Red arrows). The cause of bone loss was determined to be periodontal disease leading to cause by inflammation and infection around the root surface underneath the gum surface.

It was determined, it’s best to “save” these teeth with a bone augmentation procedure. The first step was to open a window by cutting and raising a gum flap (blue arrow) to expose the diseased root.

A magnified image clearly shows dark pigmentation around the root, determined to be the source of infection (green circle).

Open root cleaning to completely remove the infection was performed. After removing the infection, a bio-glass material was applied (yellow box). The highly porous form of this material provides scaffolding for the in-growth of blood vessels and bone-building cells, eventually regenerating the bone.

Finally, the gum flap was brought down and the “window ” was closed with sutures to cover the bone augmentation site. In most cases, completely new bone is formed within 4-6 months. With this, our senior patient and his owner lived happily ever after with no oral pain or bad breath!!!

If your pet has early or advanced dental disease, schedule a dental consultation immediately. contact our office to see Dr. Kornfeld, our residency-trained veterinary specialist.

Call 510-278-8440