Dental care is a crucial component of keeping your pet healthy. Dental disease is the most common pet health issue. It’s not just bad breath—dental disease can be deadly serious.

The bloodstream spreads oral bacteria to the entire body, potentially damaging the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys. Painful problems can lurk under the gums and in the roots. Pets rarely show signs of pain but may still be suffering from undiagnosed, untreated dental issues.

Pets cannot be awake when we thoroughly probe their teeth to check for pockets, take radiographs to see what’s going on under the gums and in the roots, and determine the best treatment plan.

We understand it is hard to have your fur baby under anesthesia—we perform dentistry on our pets here, too. Safe, thorough, compassionate: At AHBC we practice the best medicine and highest standards of care.

What Is an OATP?

Dental diagnosis and treatment are very different for pets than people. Your vet can assign the stage, or “level,” of your pet’s periodontal disease on a physical exam, but cannot know the full extent of it. The only way to assess, treat, and prevent dental disease in pets is under anesthesia.

That’s why we call a dentistry in pets Oral Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention: an OATP.

An OATP is how we…

• Assess your pet’s teeth to know exactly how much periodontal disease is present.
• Treat disease by cleaning and polishing, plus possible extractions or polymer treatments.
• Prevent disease from spreading and causing further health problems.

Dentistry is one of our core services. February and March are our dental months, when we offer discounts on dental procedures for all levels of dental disease.

What Does My Pet’s OATP Entail?

A lot. An OATP is a full-day procedure—from check in, between 7 and 7:30 a.m., to discharge, in the late afternoon or early evening.

This next page of this article details the essential procedures of an OATP.