Veterinary dental specialists do much more than clean dirty teeth and extract any loose ones. The range of oral health problems routinely performed by veterinary dental specialists is very broad, and includes orthodontics (treatment of malocclusions), oral orthopedics (fracture repair of mandibular and maxillofacial bones), oncology (surgical management of oral tumors), endodontics (root canal treatment), prosthodontics (tooth restoration with a prosthetic crown), periodontics (oral surgery to treat teeth with attachment loss), exodontics (surgical extractions), cleft lip/palate surgery, and treatment of salivary gland diseases. Furthermore, since all patients needing oral surgery must be placed under general anesthesia, veterinary dental specialists are trained to perform anesthesia on fragile patients, which may be beyond the comfort level of most primary care veterinarians. Very tiny patients, very old patients, and those that have concurrent medical issues (heart disease, kidney disease, endocrine disease, etc.) are often referred for treatment if oral diseases develop.

After four years of undergraduate college and four years if veterinary school, an aspiring veterinary dentist must then spend at least three years working at a primary care veterinary practice. Once accepted as a resident of the American Veterinary Dental College® (AVDC®), the candidate must spend an additional three years of training under the direct supervision of a Board Certified Veterinary Dentist™ . Then, after all of that, the final hurdle is that the candidate must pass two separate examinations. The Phase 1 exam is designed to assess the candidate’s  knowledge about oral diseases and their treatment, based on the current scientific literature. The Phase 2 exam is a timed test of clinical skills on a cadaver, designed to demonstrate the candidate’s ability to perform oral surgeries in an expeditious manner. After time is called, the specimens are dissected and examined by a team of veterinary dental specialists to be sure that the asked-for procedures were performed expertly.

At Animal Dental Specialists of Upstate New York, Dr. Eric Davis has been a  Board Certified Veterinary Dentist™ since 2005. Dr. Emily Tetlow is now in her third and final year of residency training. We have a dedicated staff of six Licensed Veterinary Technicians (LVT) and one LVT student, that draw blood samples, run the analyzer equipment, take intraoral radiographs, take CT images, monitor patients under general anesthesia and recovery, and assist the doctors in surgery. We perform two procedures per day, so the entire team is focused on just those two patients. In addition to dental X-rays, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) of the head is performed on all patients (except puppies and kittens). Once under general anesthesia and properly positioned, the scan takes less than 60 seconds to perform, so radiation exposure is very low. Since the teeth and jaw bones are three-dimensional structures, CBCT allows a more comprehensive image without overlap by adjacent tissues. By contrast, intraoral radiographs provide two-dimensional views of three-dimensional structures. Both have advantages and limitations and are used together. For example, the last three teeth in the upper jaw of dogs each have three roots. On an X-ray image, the roots cannot be seen individually, especially in small patients. CBCT allows scrutiny of each root of each tooth, which enables a more accurate diagnosis of disease. CBCT is also superior to X-ray images when studying the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of dogs and cats, which are often damaged following head trauma. The nasal cavity, sinuses, skull bones, TMJs, and ear structures are all seen in the CBCT scans.

In summary, Animal Dental Specialist of Upstate New York provides the expertise, education, experience, equipment, and individualized care of animal patients, and are an important and valued resource for primary care veterinarians from Albany to Rochester and from Watertown to Binghamton and beyond.