Zoboomafoo's son gets a root canal

This past Friday I had the chance to work on the son of a celebrity.  My older kids (now 21 and 18) grew up enjoying the Kratt Brothers and their talking Coquerel's Sifaka named Zoboomafoo on PBS in the early 1990's.  A lemur puppet actually did the talking, but the real lemur lived at the Duke Lemur Center here in Durham. On occasion I have the opportunity to volunteer doing veterinary dentistry at the Duke Lemur Center.  On Friday Katie, a Registered Veterinary Technician here at Westside, and I performed a root canal procedure on Charlemagne, Zoboomafoo's 7 year old son. 

We had the privilege of being joined by Linda Levin, DDS, PHD.  Linda is a board certified human endodontist that practices in Durham.  Linda taught endodontics at UNC School of Dentistry for 20 years before going into private practice.  It was so great to have her advice because Charlemagne's teeth have some features that are more similar to people then dogs or cats. 

Here is picture with Dr Levins, Dr Bobby Schopler (Duke Lemur Center Veterinarian), a still slightly sleepy Charlemagne and myself.

Scout gets a metal crown

Scout is a very sweet and compliant little  8 lb Chihuahua.  She fractured her right maxillary 4th premolar tooth a few months ago.  Her owner is a human dental school student and wanted to save this  very important tooth.  So I did a root canal on the tooth.  Here is a dental radiograph after the root canal was completed.

To protect the tooth from further injury we put a full metal crown on the tooth today.

Scout is very fortunate to have such a great owner!

Piedmont gets a new home (and no teeth)

Piedmont is a lovey, very friendly adult kitty that had spent the last 2 years at the Durham APS shelter waiting to be adopted.  She had all the qualities of a perfect feline companion; that is until one looked in her mouth.  She had severe dental disease that would require advanced oral surgery to correct.  She needed all her teeth removed.  So she waited until Westside offered to treat her at no charge to her new owner. 

So Piedmont was adopted and presented for oral surgery by her new owner a few weeks ago.  I can honestly say she that she had some of the most severe dental disease that I have seen in a kitty.  She also has an incredibily sweet personality.

Here is some of what we discovered in her mouth.

The left upper canine had severe periodontal disease, teeth resorption and a fractured root tip.

The same was true on both mandibles.  These areas were very sensitive and painful.
So I removed all her teeth.

Here she is about 4 hours after the start of anesthesia enjoying her new life without teeth.
It is always gratifying to see dogs and cats from Durham APS go to good homes, but it is especially great to see older pets adopted to loving homes.  Piedmont is in a wonderful new home and her new owner is so happy to have her.  The picture at the top of the blog is from the 2 week recheck.  Piedmont was healing great and seemed like a new cat to the owner.

Kudos also go to Durham APS for loving and keeping Piedmont for such a long time until just the right owner came along.  Piedmont is one of those pets that make veterinary dentistry fun!

Deaca gets a filling

This is Deaca (can you guess which ACC team her owner's cheer for?).  She is an extremely energenic and friendly one year old Standard Poodle.  She presented yesterday for treatment of an abnormal maxillary canine tooth.  The left upper tooth looked like this:

This tooth was missing a large area of enamel.  Enamel is the hardest and most dense biological structure in mammals.  Dogs have a relatively thin layer of enamel compared to people.  If the enamel does not form normally it can be weak and brittle.  Deaca's tooth was probably damaged during early development and the result was a an area of abnormal enamel.  In some cases the tooth will actually die because too much dentin is exposed, but Deaca's tooth still appeared to be viable.  So to prevent further damage the tooth was restored with a light-cured composite.  First the diseased enamel, tartar and plaque were gently removed:

Some staining of the enamel remained.  Next the surface was prepared by acid etching. 

The tooth was rinsed and the excess moisture was removed.  The restorative composite was applied in several layers and smoothed with finishing discs.

Deaca did very well during the procedure and was a pleasure to treat!

You can visit westsideanimal.com to learn more about pet dentistry.

Root canal therapy

I do feel a little sorry for the endodontists of the world because just the mention of the phrase "root canal" makes people unhappy. ( I know it did for me and that was long before I even knew what a root canal was!)

An endodontist is a dentist that has had special training in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the pulp systems of teeth.  The pulp system is made up of the blood vessels and nerves inside the teeth.  Endodontists spend most of their work days doing root canal therapy (aka root canals) on teeth.  Root canal therapy involves several steps:  removing the diseased pulp of the tooth, cleaning and reshaping the pulp canal, filling the pulp canal and restoring the access to the pulp.  Root canal therapy stops the pain and infection associated with dead or diseased pulps.

There are many reasons that a tooth pulp may become diseased.  In people a common reason is advanced decay (cavities), but in dogs and cats the most common reason is trauma to the tooth.  Fractured canine teeth in dogs and cats are common.  Dogs also commonly fracture the maxillary (upper) 4th premolar tooth.  If the pulp of a tooth becomes exposed to the oral cavity, then the tooth must be extracted or it can be saved with root canal therapy.

Meet Maizie Rose.  She came to her current owner with several broken teeth.  I did root canal therapy on both lower canine teeth when I first met her almost 2 years ago. Root canal therapy enabled her to keep the teeth and avoid major surgery (to remove them). Maizie Rose was back a few weeks ago to clean her teeth and recheck the teeth that had previously been treated.  The previously treated teeth look great, but we found a new problem. 

Her left mandibular first molar appeared normal.

But the radiograph demonstrated periapical bone loss (dark areas around the tooth roots) consistent with a dead tooth.

So Maizie Rose had another root canal to save this very large and important tooth.  Here is a radiograph that was taken after the pulp canals have been cleaned, treated and filled.

Maizie Rose did great with yet another root canal procedure. She is very fortunate to have such a loving and caring owner. 

Enough teeth to make a shark proud!

Macie was referred last week because her baby teeth were not falling out!  Puppies normally start to lose their baby teeth at about 4 months of age.  By 7 months of age the baby teeth should be all out and the permanent dentition should be present.  Macie is 8 months of age and her mouth looked a lot like a shark!



The retained baby teeth were preventing the adult teeth from erupting in a normal occlusion.  So I extracted 13 baby teeth and 2 permanent teeth to make room.  She did really well with the surgery and she is such a sweet puppy.

Better out then in

Meet Badger.  He is as nice as he is handsome.  He is lovely 17 pound ragdoll kitty. 

Badger was referred by his family veterinarian because he had severe dental disease and stomatitis.
Stomatitis simply means inflammation of the mouth.  Stomatitis can be very painful for cats and the causes of stomatitis are not entirely clear.  Badger really seemed to be suffering.  The owner was extremely concerned about his quality of life and was fearful that he may have to be euthanized.  Badger's family veterinarian had encouraged the owner to consider full mouth extractions, but as you may image it is very hard to think about having to remove all your cat's teeth.  After a review of Badger's history and an examination it was clear that Badger needed all of his remaining teeth removed.  I explained to the owner that cats do not need their teeth and that most cats with stomatitis will be cured or have significant improvement after the teeth are removed.

This is how Badger's mouth looked before surgery.

So we removed all of Badger's remaining teeth.  We talked to his owner the next day and she could not believe how well he was doing.  I think he really liked his pain medications!

I saw him a few days ago.  He was about 2 weeks out from surgery.  His owner was so pleased.  She said that he seems like a new cat!  It is very rewarding to be able to help cats like Badger be free of pain.