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Dental Care

Support your pet's health with professional dental cleanings, exams, and oral care you can trust.

Pet Dental Care: Keeping Your Pet’s Smile Healthy for Life
Just like humans, pets need regular dental care to stay healthy and happy. Dental disease is one of the most common—and often overlooked—health issues in dogs and cats. Left untreated, it can lead to painful infections, tooth loss, and even impact vital organs like the heart and kidneys.

What Is Pet Dental Care?

Pet dental care involves the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases that affect your pet’s teeth, gums, and mouth. It includes:

  • Routine dental exams

  • Professional cleanings under anesthesia

  • Dental X-rays to check below the gumline

  • Treatment of periodontal disease

  • Extractions (if necessary)

  • At-home dental hygiene guidance

Why Is Dental Care Important for Pets?

By the age of 3, most pets already show signs of periodontal disease. Unfortunately, the early signs—bad breath, tartar buildup, or red gums—often go unnoticed until they become more serious.

Dental disease doesn’t just stay in the mouth. Bacteria can enter the bloodstream and affect your pet’s liver, kidneys, and heart. Routine dental care helps prevent these complications and improves your pet’s overall quality of life.

What Happens During a Dental Visit?

At our veterinary hospital, your pet’s dental care typically involves:

  1. Pre-anesthetic bloodwork to ensure your pet is healthy enough for anesthesia.

  2. Full-mouth examination and digital dental X-rays to assess the teeth and jaw health, including what can’t be seen above the gumline.

  3. Ultrasonic scaling to remove plaque and tartar buildup.

  4. Polishing to smooth the tooth surface and slow future buildup.

  5. Extractions if teeth are broken, loose, or infected (only if necessary).

  6. Pain management and post-procedure care to ensure your pet is comfortable.

All procedures are performed with your pet’s safety and comfort as our top priorities. We use advanced monitoring and gentle techniques throughout.

How Can I Help at Home?

While professional cleanings are key, home care is just as important. Your veterinarian can recommend:

  • Pet-safe toothbrushes and toothpaste

  • Dental chews or diets

  • Water additives or oral rinses

Even a few minutes of brushing several times a week can make a big difference.

Common Signs of Dental Trouble

Keep an eye out for:

  • Bad breath

  • Drooling

  • Difficulty chewing

  • Red or bleeding gums

  • Pawing at the mouth

  • Loose or missing teeth

If you notice any of these signs, schedule a dental exam promptly.

Your pet’s mouth is a window into their overall health. Regular dental care isn’t just about a cleaner smile, it’s about helping your furry companion live a longer, healthier life.

🐾 Looking to keep your pet healthy and happy? Visit us—we’re here to support every step of the way.

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FAQs

Answers to Common Questions

Harbor View Veterinary Hospital keeps track of your pet's weight just like your doctor's office keeps track of your height and weight each time you visit. Having an accurate and current measurement of your pet's weight will help us ensure that we prescribe the right dose of preventives, medications, and any needed anesthetics. It can also help us notice any early clues to health concerns. In addition, a regular weigh-in can help you track and manage your pet's weight.

Call us. Just like doctors, veterinarians sometimes need to try more than one treatment/medication to find the correct solution to cure or manage a pet's condition. Please let us know if something we recommended or prescribed isn't helping. We want to work with you to find the right answers for your pet.

Veterinarians can't diagnose over the phone. Besides being unethical and illegal, diagnosing by phone doesn't allow veterinarians to physically examine a pet. A physical exam is necessary so your veterinarian can provide an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment. Treating a pet for the wrong disease or condition will cost more in the end and could be harmful or even deadly to your pet.

Spaying and neutering can have major benefits for your pet, including lowering or preventing the risk of several diseases and types of cancer. Your veterinarian will be happy to discuss these benefits. In addition, spaying and neutering helps control the pet population by reducing the number of unwanted pets. Spaying and neutering are surgical procedures that require your pet to be put under anesthesia. The cost of these procedures takes into account the anesthesia, your veterinary team's time and expertise, monitoring, drapes, suture material, and hospitalization. Spaying or neutering your pet is much less expensive than feeding and caring for litters of unwanted puppies or kittens or dealing with potential pregnancy complications.

Your veterinarian will determine which vaccinations are appropriate for your dog or cat, based on individual factors, such as lifestyle and health status. Veterinarians commonly recommend that dogs be vaccinated against rabies, distemper, Lyme, and Leptospirosis parvovirus and that cats be vaccinated against rabies and panleukopenia (feline distemper). Additional vaccines, such as feline leukemia virus (FeLV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and Bordetella (kennel cough), Lyme, and Leptospirosis are recommended based on your cat or dog's risk. Many of these diseases can be fatal to your pet. Preventing them is far easier and less expensive than treatment. If you would like more information on vaccines, ask your veterinarian.

For the safety and protection of all clients, patients, and veterinary team members, we require all pets to be on a leash or in a carrier when they arrive at our hospital. They must continue to be restrained while they are in the reception area and while traveling to and from the exam rooms. Your veterinarian or veterinary technician will let you know when it's OK to let your pet off leash or out of his or her carrier. There is often a lot going on at our hospital. Combine that with unfamiliar surroundings and new animals, and any pet-even one that is well trained-might become uneasy or overly excited. We want you and your pet to have as pleasant an experience as possible every time you visit our hospital, so we ask all our clients to respect our policy.