Is My Pet Too Old For Anesthesia?

Older Pet's Deserve Excellent Dental Care Too!

One of the most common concerns our pet owners have is anesthesia. Most common, it is our older patients that are in the most need of having dental work performed. It is important to remember that dental disease is painful and causes great discomfort to our pets. The only way to effectively treat established dental disease is to do a thorough dental cleaning under anesthesia. We utilize the safest anesthetics available. We also recommend bloodwork prior to anesthesia in order to detect any underlying concerns such as liver or kidney disease that may alter our plan of action. Animals with underlying disease such as a heart murmur, liver disease, kidney disease, and/or diabetes are actually the patients who can benefit the most from having a thorough dental cleaning to remove sources of pain, infection, and inflammation that may be aggravating their concurrent condition. Your veterinarian may also recommend chest radiographs or an ultrasound prior to anesthesia if your pet has a heart murmur or other concerns detected during a physical exam to give us more information. Please discuss any concerns you may have with your veterinarian.