In house
Introduction
All dental packages receive pre-medication, an iv catheter, iv fluids, general anesthesia, anesthetic monitoring, nerve blocks, dental cleaning and polishing of the teeth, the bair hugger and full mouth dental X-rays as part of the dental package. We monitor blood pressure, end-tidal carbon dioxide output, ECG, pulse oximetry, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate throughout the procedure. When we anesthetize a pet we utilize all the safety nets in our arsenal. We expect pre-anesthetic blood work within a few months of anesthesia and offer pre-anesthetic global FAST exams the morning of the procedure to help minimize any anesthetic risk. We incorporate dental nerve blocks to keep the pet on the lightest plane of anesthesia possible for the pet’s safety. Clients are often surprised at what a light plane of anesthesia we keep our patients for dentals.
DENTAL XRAYS ARE FREE WITH DENTALS.
Dr Joi took an impromptu video of her nurses one day to post on YouTube for clients to see what really happens in the back. Her nurses are good eggs to tolerate Joi going Hollywood on them! Joi surprised them with this idea moments before this video, and they performed admirably while being filmed. They are seasoned pros, and it would have likely been even faster if they hadn’t been on camera. Anesthesia and dental X-rays at the onset of a pet dental – YouTube
Photo: Maggie Henning of Jupiter, Florida
Will My Pet Need Extractions?
(These photos are of the same tooth)
These pictures are all the same tooth!
The first picture shows why “non-anesthetic dentals” can give people a false sense of security. This picture shows a periodontal pocket, but you don’t see the abscessed tooth root that is causing the pet significant pain. The picture looks benign when there is actually significant pathology.
The 2nd picture shows the dental xray. The tooth is clearly abscessed. We can’t take dental xrays unless the pet is anesthetized because the digital dental sensor (the part of the machine that goes in the pet’s mouth) has a 9 thousand dollar replacement cost! We don’t stick it into a mouth unless the pet is anesthetized.
Finally, the 3rd picture shows the actual tooth. The infected (painful) tissue has been cleaned away from the tooth. Remember how benign it appeared on the first picture. This tooth needs extraction. Without xrays the pet would have suffered silently in pain.
We take full mouth dental xrays with our dental cleanings. This takes about 6 to 10 minutes for small pets and 10 to 12 minutes for large pets. You can view a video of Nurse Jane and Nurse Heather taking dental xrays while Dr Joi describes the procedure and anesthetic safety nets we utilize. We utilize dental nerve blocks (local anesthesia) to prevent pain and to help us keep the patient on the lightest plane of anesthesia possible. We do not charge for dental xrays.
See below (under “Dental Extractions”) for more information on dentals and our safe anesthetic practices. Sometimes clients think the pet is just “getting old” when in fact there is oral pain. “He’s like a puppy again!” is something we often hear after dentals.
Our Pet Dental Pricing
Standard Dental Cleaning
$425*
Approximation
| Description | Pricing |
|---|---|
| * With no extractions |
**All pets under anesthesia will get the anti-nausea medications, Cerenia and ondansetron. All pets get an IV catheter and fluids as part of the package.
What cleaning includes
Standard Cleaning Includes:
- All dental packages receive pre-medication, an iv catheter, iv fluids, general anesthesia, anesthetic monitoring, dental cleaning and polishing of the teeth, the bair hugger, and full mouth dental X-rays as part of the dental package.
- We monitor blood pressure, end-tidal carbon dioxide output, ECG, pulse oximetry, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate throughout the procedure.
- When we anesthetize a pet we utilize all the safety nets in our arsenal. We expect pre-anesthetic blood work within a few months of anesthesia and offer pre-anesthetic global FAST exams the morning of the procedure to help minimize any anesthetic risk.
- We incorporate dental nerve blocks to keep the pet on the lowest plane of anesthesia possible for the pet’s safety.
- DENTAL XRAYS ARE FREE WITH DENTALS.
Dental Extractions
If the dental requires extractions, clearly there is added anesthesia time, sterile surgical instruments, suture, doctor time, nursing time, and nerve blocks. We don’t charge “per tooth” extraction time as sometimes teeth just fall out whereas other times it may be quite tricky. Dr. Sutton is a pretty efficient surgeon and tries very hard to keep the bill low. We charge $10 per minute of surgery time. This pays for both Dr Sutton and her nurses attending to your pet. Dentals may cost clients $450 (which includes all the safety nets we perform) if there are no extractions. If there is severe disease with numerous or difficult extractions, it could cost up to $1800. We just don’t know until we have the pet anesthetized, have the dental xrays and have cleaned off the tartar to evaluate the teeth. Dog’s have 42 teeth. That’s little 42 patients in your dog’s mouth! Cats have 32 teeth.
Anesthesia
We rarely keep pets under anesthesia longer than 120 minutes. Dr. Sutton knows a lot of veterinarians who will leave a pet under anesthesia for a dental for 3 or 4 hours at a time, but she disagrees with this mentality. And, she has been in practice since 1993 and has speed and confidence with dental extractions. If a pet is doing well under anesthesia we may extend the dental beyond her usual 120 minutes cut-off, but we take into account how the pet is doing including vital signs, blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, and temperature. IF there is more pathology than we can do under one anesthetic procedure, we may wake the pet up and reschedule a 2nd dental procedure.
Our Anesthesia Safety Nets and Best Practices
Written by Dr. Joi Sutton
Keep reading to learn the many “safety nets” we have in place to minimize the risk of anesthesia. We do not allow clients to decline any of these safety nets. These are non-negotiable! These safety nets are included in the price of anesthesia. These safety nets are the things we do when we anesthetize our own pets.
Dental procedures and pricing (updated Nov 2021)
DENTAL PROCEDURES AND PRICING
We perform a lot of dentals at Tequesta Vet Clinic and pride ourselves on our dental care. These days, most of Dr. Sutton’s time at the clinic is devoted to dentals and surgery. The other doctors at Tequesta Veterinary Clinic see most of our outpatients since Dr. Sutton is doing surgery and dentals most of her days. We get many new clients specifically because our dentals are affordably priced. She has been known for quality dental skills for years, but during the pandemic Dr Sutton took a “master course” in veterinary dentistry to further hone her aptitude. In 2020/2021 Dr Joi successfully completed the 8 month Veterinary Dental Practitioners Program at the International Veterinary Dentistry Institute (IVDI), ranking her amongst the foremost in general veterinary dentistry.
Dr. Sutton is not a board-certified dentist but has a real knack (and speed) at extractions. Her nursing staff obtains full mouth digital X-Rays of the pet’s mouth rapidly at the beginning of anesthesia. This typically takes about 6 to 10 minutes for small dogs and cats and about 10 to 15 minutes for big dogs. Dr. Sutton has top-end dental and anesthesia equipment and highly skilled nurses who not only perform the dentals but also monitor the anesthesia. She likes to joke that when we have your pet under anesthesia for a dental it is like a NASCAR pit crew working on your pet. Please also read about anesthesia and safety nets under a separate tab on our website. A dental is not just a dental. It is anesthesia as well, and we do our best to ensure the safety of your beloved pet!
If your pet has heart disease we will discuss special protocols and have one of the local cardiologists do an echo prior to scheduling a dental.
How we charge out dental procedures at Tequesta Veterinary Clinic:
All dental packages receive pre-medication, an iv catheter, iv fluids, general anesthesia, anesthetic monitoring, dental cleaning and polishing of the teeth, the bair hugger, and full mouth dental X-Rays as part of the dental package. We monitor blood pressure, end tidal carbon dioxide output, ECG, pulse oximetry, temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate throughout the procedure. When we anesthetize a pet we utilize all the safety nets in our arsenal. We expect pre-anesthetic blood work within a few months of anesthesia and offer pre-anesthetic global FAST exams the morning of the procedure to help minimize any anesthetic risk. As soon as we identify that there will be extractions, we incorporate courtesy dental nerve blocks to keep the pet on the lowest plane of anesthesia possible for your pet’s safety. Truly, when we have your pet under anesthesia for a dental, we try to keep your pet on a very light plane of anesthesia such that they typically have a palpebral response and a gag reflex. Anesthesia is an art and our job is to keep your pet as safe as possible. Nerve blocks are an important component to anesthesia for dentistry, and they also help keep your pet comfortable post op!
DENTAL XRAYS ARE FREE WITH DENTALS.
If there are no extractions we do all the above for $425! We encourage early intervention and reward clients for this by charging minimally for all the bells and whistles mentioned above. We call this a “Level 1” dental. This is nearly the same price as we would charge a pet for iv fluids and anesthesia and anesthesia monitoring. (Know that this includes an injection of Cerenia with anesthesia.)
If there are extractions there will typically be a small fee for a narcotic injection and for an injection of an anti-inflammatory drug. Pain management is not optional. We will give narcotics and anti-inflammatory meds if a pet has extractions. Typically we give one anti-inflammatory med and one narcotic to each pet that gets extractions.
If the dental requires extractions, clearly there is added anesthesia time, sterile surgical instruments, suture, doctor time, nursing time, and nerve blocks. We don’t charge “per tooth” extraction time as sometimes teeth just fall out whereas other times it may be quite tricky. Dr. Sutton is a pretty efficient surgeon and tries very hard to keep the bill low.
OF COURSE, IF YOUR PET HAS EXTRACTIONS IT WILL GO HOME ON PAIN MEDICATIONS POST OPERATIVELY AND POSSIBLY ANTIBIOTIC AS WELL.
We try not to keep pets under anesthesia longer than 120 minutes. Dr Sutton knows a lot of veterinarians who will leave a pet under anesthesia for a dental for 3 or 4 hours at a time, but she disagrees with this mentality. And, she has been in practice since 1993 and has a speed and confidence with dental extractions. If a pet is doing well under anesthesia we may occasionally extend the dental beyond her usual 120 minute cut off, but we take into account how the pet is doing including vital signs, blood pressure, end tidal CO2 and temperature. IF there is more pathology than we can do under one anesthetic procedure, we may wake the pet up and reschedule a 2nd dental procedure.
IF A PET HAS GINGIVAL POCKETS: We commonly use doxycycline gel (called Doxirobe) to help the pockets heal and allow the gingival to heal back to the tooth. When we do this, we charge you for the product used and it does not count toward the surgical time. Doxirobe is $77.50 per syringe.
IF THE PET HAS AREAS OF VERTICAL BONE LOSS: We might use Consil which is a putty of glass beads that acts as a matrix for osteoclasts to form more bone. Again, we charge you for the product itself and a Doxirobe which acts as a membrane to keep the Consil in the area. This is done as an effort to save teeth! Consil typically will be $23.
Occasionally there will be enamel defects from trauma. If there is exposed dentin but the tooth is otherwise normal, we can smooth the area and do bonded sealants to protect the tooth from bacterial invasion. If the pulp chamber is involved we can’t do a sealant. We charge $62 for the first tooth then about $25 per additional tooth for bonded sealant. (If numerous teeth are involved we discount bonded sealant on additional teeth as the nurse has already set up the equipment.)
The dental packages do NOT include blood work prior to the procedure nor antibiotic injections nor any anti-inflammatory and narcotic injections nor medications that go home after the dental. (We include any nerve blocks and our class 4 therapeutic laser to decrease pain intra-op and post-op as a courtesy.) Any medication prescriptions that go home with pets after a dental or procedure are not included in the procedural packages. A 5 pound chihuahua needs far less milligrams of whatever medication than a 100 pound dane.
We are unable to take dental xrays without general anesthesia as the sensor that goes in the mouth for our digital xray unit costs $9,000 and if a pet chomps on it, we must replace it.
Our nursing staff is amazing at taking dental xrays! It typically takes them about 6 to 10 minutes for a small pet up to 15 minutes for a large pet at the onset of anesthesia to take full mouth dental radiographs.
Pre-operatively we sent Protonix and melatonin for the night prior to anesthesia and gabapentin for the morning of anesthesia. These meds are at no charge. Pet parents give these by mouth at home. Anesthesia is an art and we strive to maintain the safest protocols.
All pets undergoing anesthesia receive an injection of Cerenia. Since Dr. Sutton started this in 2016, peri-operative inappetence/nausea is now a rarity at TVC. Cerenia also has analgesic properties and decreases the amount of gas anesthetic needed. We try to keep our pets on the lightest plane of anesthesia possible to maintain body temperature and blood pressure.
You can clearly see that early intervention keeps dental care affordable. We send a courtesy “dental kit” home with patients to help owners keep the teeth healthy. We strive to make dental care affordable.
Dr. Sutton or one of the staff veterinarians will of course help you assess the situation on your consultation prior to the day of the dental.
Dr. Sutton does NOT perform root canals. Occasionally a removing a tooth could fracture a jaw. If a tooth is particularly tricky such that she feels it should be addressed by a dental specialist, she typically refers to Dr. Mike Wiegand in Stuart.
