The call from the painter was not unexpected; contract workers
often call owners at work to check some exactness in detail. But
Stacey Hassard's painter did not ask if eggshell was really what
she wanted. "Uh, is your dog supposed to be standing in the
middle of your driveway?" the man asked.
Rocky, a six-year-old American Staffordshire terrier was supposed
to be in his kennel in the garage. When Hassard got home and examined
the dog, she found a serious problem. "He had broken off
the top of his fang and the pink root was exposed," she said,
"so I took him to our regular vet, who doesn't do dentistry
and he referred us here."
Here is Shoreline Veterinary Dental Clinic, home to the only
full-time veterinarian dentists in Washington. The unassuming
brick-front office, hidden behind shrubs along the concrete of
Aurora Avenue North, is a converted home housing the dental clinic
and a traditional veterinarian practice.
Doug DuPont and Linda DeBowes are licensed and certified members
of the American Dental Veterinarian College, two of just 70 board-certified
animal dentists in the world. DuPont has practiced veterinarian
medicine since 1981 and DeBowes taught students in the Midwest
for 17 years before joining the Shoreline clinic.
While the American Staffordshire's injury was traumatic, Ripley,
an 18-month-old Jack Russell terrier, had a less conspicuous problem.
All four canine teeth were wearing down where she clutched the
ball during her retrievals with owner Becky Hudson.
Hudson brushed Ripley's teeth faithfully, so when she also saw
blood on a rear molar, she took the dog to the Jack Russell's
regular vet. "The vet said she had never seen a crack so
fresh," Hudson said. Many owners fail to notice tooth problems
until the infection causes a lump under the dog's eye the veterinarian
told the Seattle woman.
"I figured the vet would pull her molar tooth, but I was
really worried about the four canine teeth," Hudson said,
"I thought how will she catch her ball?" The veterinarian
surprised Ripley's owner with a referral to the Shoreline dental
clinic. "I had no idea there were dentists for dogs,"
the terrier's owner said.
The Shoreline specialists only treat animals with health-impacting
problems. A few owners have asked the board-certified specialists
to improve their show-quality dogs bite appearance for competition.
They were turned away.
"We will not perform a procedure for cosmetic reasons only,"
DuPont said. "There is an ethical consideration," DeBowes
echoed. A malocclusion, when a tooth does not fit properly with
its lower companion tooth, will not be repaired if the animal
is not suffering or headed for a serious problem.
DeBowes preformed root canals to repair the Staffordshire's broken
fang and the Jack Russell's cracked and bleeding molar. The veterinarian
then offered an alternative to pulling the four rapidly eroding
canine teeth. Ripley's fang teeth could be measured and fit with
silver metallic caps.
click on the image to enlarge
Hudson asked if the caps would be in place permanently. DeBowes
said yes, so the Seattle woman scheduled the procedure. "I've
had braces and I know if you pull teeth the other teeth shift
to new positions," Ripley's owner said, "I didn't think
that would be good for her jaw or bite."
The Shoreline vets say that animal owners repeatedly expect this
type and level of care for their pets even though repair work
can be costly. A root canal in a canine or fang tooth costs around
$900 and a crown can be as much as $600. Some Seattle-area veterinarians
also do root canals, but do not specialize in the dental procedures
and are not board-certified.
The pair also repair tooth problems for cats and zoo animals.
DeBowes once performed a root canal on a Bengal tiger. "They
wheeled him in on a gurney," she said. Late last week, the
dental veterinarians did three different procedures on three different
dogs.
Treatment Day
The procedure space is in the treatment and boarding area and
is small. Rocky lies anesthetized, ready for his procedure as
Franz Dieter, a nine-year-old dachshund is prepared for the second
table. Less than two feet separate the metal platforms.
A tan x-ray arm, like it's cousin appendage in a human dentist
office, swings between both tables, swooping in for a quick shot
of the larger dog's repaired tooth and, later, a close look at
a lesion on the dachshund's lower gum.
Two veterinarian technicians move quietly around and through
the tight space, retrieving vet-specified equipment, responding
to the monitoring station's beeps, grabbing a portable headset
so consultation calls from other veterinarians can be taken by
DeBowes and DuPont and, finally, doing the mundane, but owner-appreciated
nail clipping.
ROCKY
DeBowes, in wide goggles with thimble-sized magnification cylinders
in the lower portion of each lens, cradles the square-jawed dog's
heavy head and peers in at the root canal she did last year. The
tooth is healing nicely.
Inspecting his other teeth, she notices a slight cut. She said
she thinks the tan and white-muzzled dog chewed on a stick and
crunched it down between the teeth. She will ask Hassard to keep
an eye on the wound. A quick clean of his teeth and Rocky's procedure
is over.
On a quiet word from DeBowes, the technicians converge shoulder-to-shoulder
to dead-man lift the steroidal and groggy Rocky back to his recovery
kennel.
Franz Dieter
His former tablemate dwarfs the black-tipped dachshund and his
small teeth clarify the necessity of the magnification chip on
a second set of goggles that DuPont now slips over his head. Franz
is back at the dental clinic for his third root canal.
Dachshunds are pre-disposed to tooth problems because of the
shape of their head the specialist said. With the elongated nose
and thin bone plates, periodontal pockets are likely to form.
"An infected pocket can cause devastating problems,"
DuPont said.
DuPont treats a new pocket with a gel to close the opening while
it heals with antibiotics in the sealant. An infection in a periodontal
pocket can get deeper and eventually break into the nose. "They
chronically sneeze and are just miserable animals," DuPont
explained.
Franz's root canal takes much longer than Rocky's check-up, so
the technicians tag-team again to move the gangly Josie, an eight-month
Flat-Coated Retriever, over to Rocky's vacated table for a procedure
using passive force orthodontia. One of the black dog's upper
canine teeth is coming in at an odd angle and cutting into her
lower gum.
DeBowes creates a device called an acrylic incline plane. She
sprinkles a loose powder against the dog's lower teeth and dampens
it with an acrid-smelling liquid. The material hardens as DeBowes
molds it to catch and slide the tooth down a trough she shaves
into the material. This moves the tooth away from tender tissue.
When the dental procedures are over, the clinicians prepare for
several afternoon appointments. Franz Dieter's owner is bringing
in a younger dog from the house. Seems Franz's owner found a stray
bone chip lying around. DuPont examined the chip and knew immediately
it was from the upper fourth molar.
But Franz's tooth at that location had no problem. Besides that,
the tooth was from a less mature dog. The owner mentioned the
second dog in the house, so Franz's kennel mate is scheduled to
see DeBowes. She will know right where to look for the damaged
tooth.
Copyright
© 2002 by Pat Owen
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To
contact Shoreline Veterinary Dental Clinic
Address: 16037 Aurora Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98133
Phone: 206-542-2101 Fax 206-542-4290
Linda DeBowes, DVM, Dip
ACVIM (Int Med), Dip AVDC or
Gregg DuPont, DVM, Fellow AVD, Dip AVDC
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