Feline Dental Care?

On an episode of The Girls Next Door, Bridget's cat Gizmo had a visit from a cat dentist who put her in a "papoose" and cleaned her teeth without anesthesia.





My question is - is this type of cleaning of the same quality as you would get when your cat is put under? And if so, why isn't it more common?

Feline Dental Care?
It's definitely not as thorough as having the cat put under. At my clinic we only do teeth cleaning without anaesthesia under these conditions: the cat is well behaved and can't have anaesthetic due to age or medical conditions; or the cat is well behaved and needs a light touch up because it's more prone to dental disease than is normal. Remember, angry cats can be very violent. Everyone at my clinic would rather deal with an irate pitt bull than an angry cat. :)
Reply:Most likely not the same quality care. Reason being the cat must be a really really really calm cat to have that done. Most cats will move about and protest the fact they are being restrained or held upside down (belly up). When a cat is put under, it allows for a more thorough cleaning as well as for the cat's own safety, purposes of sterilization and well basically a professional job. There are tons of great homeopathic or natural things for your cat out there that I would recommend doing. This is not one of them.
Reply:Were the cats teeth simply being brushed or were they being scaled and polished which is getting all the tartar off by scraping and irrigation? Dental equipment is used for that.





Cleaning is more than just that, it's also checking for cavaties and decaying teeth. If the cat needs to have teeth pulled, believe me, anesthesia would need to be used.





I didn't see that episode so I can't comment on the procedure. But if Hef was paying for it, it probably cost a small fortune, reason enough why it's not more common...wish Hef would pay for my animal bills, lol.
Reply:I think that is great if the cat can tolerate it. It might depend on the condition of the teeth. My dentist's assistant cleans and polises teeth. For my teeth which always have a hard plaque buildup the dentist does the cleaning and scraping down below the gum line. I don't have anesthesia for it and it can hurt.





So any cleaning is a good thing and if there are real dental problems the cat should probably be anestesized. The assistant's don't do x-rays either and sometimes my cats have x-rays of their teeth.

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