Welcome to February:  Does Your Pet Need a COHAT?

Wait, did we just say your pet needs a hat?  While we are never opposed to fun gear for our furry friends, February is Dental Health Month and we are more interested in what is going on inside your pet’s mouth than on top of their head!  A COHAT is a “Comprehensive Oral Health Assessment and Treatment.”  Basically what we usually refer to as a “dental cleaning” is actually much more complicated than that!

When you bring your pet in for a “dental” you are signing them up for a 12 Step program.  During their stay with us, this is what happens behind the scenes.  Brace yourself, it is not a simple process!!

1).  Patient History and Physical Exam – This is a combination of reviewing our patient’s records as well as completing a physical exam the morning of the dental procedure.  We want to be sure your pet is ready for their anesthetic procedure.  While our veterinarians and technicians are AWESOME (and modest too!), sometimes our patients have health problems that we simply can’t diagnose on physical exam.  We will always recommend pre-anesthetic bloodwork before any anesthetic procedure for exactly this reason!

2).  Initial Oral Survey – This is done before the cleaning process starts.  We grade the amount of tartar or calculus on the teeth, chart all gingivitis and periodontal disease, look for lumps and bumps etc.  As you can imagine, we can’t always see everything when our patients are awake!  Those mouths are wiggly!  When your pet is blissfully asleep, we can examine every nook and cranny and come up with the best possible plan to treat any problems.

3).  Supragingival Calculus Removal – This is the removal of the tartar that we can see on the teeth.  We use an ultrasonic scaler to remove this tartar, just like your dental hygienist does.  When your groomer or other health care professional performs non-anesthetic dentistry, this is ALL that they can do.  Unfortunately, while this part does make your pet’s teeth look pretty, it has minimal benefit to your pet’s oral health and is not the most important part of the procedure.

4).  Subgingival Cleaning – This part of the procedure removes tartar from UNDER the gum line.  Whenever tartar – which is a mixture of bacteria and gross food particles – gets under the gumline, the bacteria will weaken the surrounding bone and tooth loss will occur.  This is therefore the MOST important part of the COHAT.

5).  Polishing – Small defects and irregularities in the teeth are now smoothed out with polishing.  No, the dogs and cats don’t get to pick their flavor!  But we do try to get peanut butter or poultry flavor so they have that yummy taste lingering when they wake up!  Besides tasting good, the polishing will help prevent tartar from reforming.

6).  Sulcus irrigation/lavage – This is done to remove the extra polish and other debris that is stuck just under the gingiva.  We use a combo of air and water to clean those pockets. 

7).  Fluoride application – Fluoride strengthens the enamel and actually provides some pain relief.  Do your gums ever feel sore after you have your teeth cleaned?  Applying fluoride will help relieve the irritation!  Complete Charting – Wow, do we chart!  Something like 20 different factors are evaluated for each tooth and marked on a cool dental diagram.  The diagram is scanned and saved for the life of your pet.  This helps us to decide when the next COHAT should be done and helps to predict whether any of your pet’s teeth are at risk in the near future.

8).  Full Mouth Intraoral Digital Radiographs – About 80% of dental disease is not visible to the naked eye.  This includes problems like tooth root resorption, below the gumline fractures, dental abscesses, root fragments, cysts, unerupted teeth, jaw bone masses, fistulae, etc, etc, etc.  Whew!  Basically, this helps us to find any and all problems present so that we can fix them in the next step!

10).  Treatment plan – All problems are resolved during this part of the COHAT.  We remove all unsalvageable teeth because pets don’t need all of their teeth to live but they do need and deserve a pain-free and infection-free mouth.  I stole that saying from a dental specialist because it is so true!  I have had two teeth with damaged roots and they HURT!  I know that many owners are worried when their pet has extractions.  However, we always find that the pets are visibly more comfortable with those painful teeth gone.

11).  Home Care – This is an essential part of the COHAT.  As always, YOU make the greatest impact on your pet’s oral health.  As part of Dental Health Month, we are giving away Home Health Care Kits to ALL of our dental patients.  Brushing those teeth at home once daily can go a long way to saving those teeth!

12).  Schedule your next appointment – If your pet has extractions or other procedures during the dental, we will want to recheck those in 2 weeks.  If not, we encourage you to return in 6 months for us to evaluate that mouth.  We can then correct any spots that are being missed with your homecare and decide if a COHAT is needed again in the future.  Some pets, especially those with smushy faces and toy breed dogs, require more frequent dental procedures.

So, does your pet need a COHAT?  February would be a great time to get that question answered!