Has anyone tried non sedation dental cleaning for dogs?

Irishgal

I run with scissors
O.G.
Apr 22, 2006
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So for some reason my female doxie seems to need dental every 6 months despite my attempts to brush her teeth. I really don't like doing the full sedation each time. There is a very nice place that does non sedation dental close to my home, but I am not very familiar with this, has anyone heard anything good or bad, or tried it? I believe they do it for cats, too.
 
i watched an episode of the girls next door where this lady came to the mansion and cleaned one of the girls cats teeth without sedating it... it seemed really stressful for the animal.. idk

my dog need to get his teeth cleaned too,,
 
I've had my dog's teeth cleaned both ways: at the vet, under anesthesia, and in my home, without anesthesia. In the latter, the woman came to my house with all her equipment and took my dog into another room. She sat on the floor with a bright lamp and went to work. She asked that she and the dog stay in the other room with the door closed so that he wouldn't get distracted. His teeth came out looking so sparkly and his breath was instantly better, and it was cheaper than the vet and certainly less harmful to him (when he was anesthetized, it was so hard watching him so groggy and out of it).

I asked another vet about this and she said that these kinds of procedures are mostly cosmetic, and that it's impossible to get the back teeth - the ones that are most important for chewing, and therefore must be taken care of so as not to have to be pulled - really clean without putting the dog under.

So now I don't know what to do, because I hate to put him under...
 
My Chis get their dentals done at the vets office under anesthesia every year.

I just make sure that they do a full bloodwork panel on them to check for any abnormalities before they are put under

It is still scary, though :sad:
 
A few years ago my dog had her teeth cleaned without being knocked out.

The teeth looked really clean (don't remember about the far back ones), and her breath was less stinky too.

A local pet supply store has weekend clinics where you can bring in your pet, I think it was $80 at the time.
 
Definitely do bloodwork in advance for adult/older dogs or dogs that may be prone to abnormalities if anesthesia is the route. I think the size makes a difference so if your dog is smaller, go to a vet who has alot of experience with or even specializes in small animals... but I will never do sedation for teeth cleaning...only necessary dental work that can be a life or death problem. I had taken my pom to an anesthesia free teeth cleaner and it was great. Because she was a rescue and abnormally small (which we all know the dreaded "teacups" bring about a slew of problems, which seems to always include bad teeth on all my tiny rescues vs the normal sized toys), she dropped a tooth. I took a chance and took her in for cleaning and extractions that needed sedation. After going into cardiac arrest, they were unable to restart her heart so I've vowed to never have one of my pets put under basic cleaning since then. Unfortunately, we dont have an anesthesia free cleaning in the area we're in now, but dahlia's on a raw food diet which includes raw meaty bones, so her teeth have remained pearly white and healthy. Wish I knew this before. I do keep them checked though, and if she ever needs tartar cleaning, I'd drive the distance for one.

When I had dahlia spayed, she needed sedation (obviously), so I had bloodwork done at the same time. She had one done months before the procedure, so I already knew she had no heart/vascular problems before we got her but thought I'd have a more thorough one done with my vet also so why not while she's asleep. Although she had good results otherwise, the bloodwork showed higher levels of stress from the anesthesia... which was a relief since that one elevated level could have meant a life threatening disease (I cant remember what now). I don't mean to scare anyone since sedation is absolutely necessary in alot of cases and the chance of passing is still rare, through personal experience I still won't do it if there are alternative methods since I haven't heard of a mishap like this yet by doing it this way.