Dental COHAT

(Comprehensive Oral Health Assessment and Treatment)

A dental COHAT involves a multistep procedure (below) that is performed by a veterinarian. This includes a thorough assessment of your pet’s oral cavity to formulate a personalized treatment plan to address any disease that may be present.

 

When only a “dental clean” is performed, the opportunity to fully assess your pet’s mouth and address potential disease processes would be missed. In this sense, teeth have been compared to icebergs; there is more tooth structure below the gumline than what is visible above and whilst the cleaning of the teeth plays a vital part of dental COHAT, significant amount of disease may be missed if dental structures and surrounding bone below the gumline is not evaluated.

 

Step one: A physical examination of the entire patient is performed followed by a review of the patients medical and dental history. Pre- anaesthetic bloodwork is performed to assess internal organ function.

 

Step two: Once sedated and anesthetized, dental radiographs are performed to assess the health of the roots of each tooth that is hidden below the gumline

 

Step three: A through oral and dental examination is performed. This involves noting any abnormalities or defect in a patient’s dentition e.g., fractures, mobility, discoloration as well as evaluating the soft tissue structures of the oral cavity for any abnormalities e.g. oral masses, ulcerations, swelling. A special instrument is also used to probe each tooth that additionally helps in indicating the health of a teeth

 

Step four: An ultrasonic scaler is used to scale above and below the gumline to remove plaque and calculus before polishing to help smoothen out the surface of the tooth to reduce the attachment of bacteria

 

Step five: Further treatments might be indicated if diseased teeth are present. If any painful procedures i.e. extractions are needed, nerve blocks are performed to numb the mouth. This allows us to keep the patient comfortable whilst also using less gas anaesthesia, thereby keeping the anaesthetic procedure even safer

 

Step 6: Instructions are provided for post – operative care (if extractions are required) and overall dental home care

 

The following guidelines are based off the 2019 AAHA Dental Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats

 

FAQs

Should I be taking my pet to the groomers for an anesthesia free dental? Read more here