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The dentistry page is a comprehensive resource for Veterinary news, animal health, and pet care insights on dentistry. Read more at dvm360.

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Clinical

 dentistry page is a comprehensive resource for clinical news and insights on the latest in veterinary dentistry. This page consists of videos, interviews, articles, podcasts, and research on the advancements and developments of therapies for dentistry, and more.

 Doug Aspros, DVM, chief veterinary officer of Veterinary Practice Partners, sat down with our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss the inadequacies in veterinary education surrounding dentistry, highlight the importance of providing dental care as a general practitioner, and how to break down procedures into smaller blocks of time to provide better care and accurate estimates for clients. 

It's clear that [veterinary students] graduate without adequate training, certainly not adequate, sort of day one training. And there are a bunch of reasons for that. One is that the curriculum has expanded to cover a whole lot more stuff than perhaps you and I got when we were in veterinary school. All of that's good, but that also leaves gaps. And because a lot of veterinary hospitals, teaching hospitals, or tertiary care hospitals means they're not doing a lot of sort of routine dental care and so there are not a lot of opportunities for graduates to get that basic education. 

Then add to that, the fact that new graduates are reluctant to do the first one. The way I think about developing expertise over time is, you become expert by doing enough reps, but if you don't do the first rep, you can't do the second, you can't do the third, you can't do the fourth. You can't build on your experience to become an experienced and appropriate care provider, and so I think that even more so requires employers, especially employers of new vets, of younger veterinarians, to help provide that care and fill those back gaps in so that, so they can build expertise and become appropriately, great practitioners.

Doug Aspros, DVM, joins this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast to discuss education gaps in veterinary dentistry and how to potentially close them 

Bridging the gap in dentistry education

This week's episode features Amy Thomson, DVM, DAVDC, and host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, as they delve into how Thomson originally fell in love with veterinary dentistry, the importance of collaborating with dental specialists, emphasizing the need for effective communication between practitioners, and how all of this lead Thomson to open her own mobile clinic. 

So for general practitioners tuning in, when should they offer their clients a referral to a veterinary dentist or oral surgeon?

 I don't feel like there's ever a time that it's like, wrong to, and I can only speak for myself, but I feel very comfortable with my colleagues saying there's nothing—it's been funny, I've been asked before, this owner is really nervous, can we send you if we think it's only going to be a cleaning, and in my mind, I'm like, it's really never just a cleaning, but there's nothing beneath me. I treat the whole mouth and so I never think it's wrong to offer that. But things like fractured teeth, where owners really don't want to extract they want to preserve the function of that too. So like a root canal treatment, that's definitely something that would be referral based. 

Most jaw fracture maxillofacial trauma is ideal to refer. Some of it is having a dialogue that, we want to put the pet back together as quickly as possible return function as soon as possible. However, that often is at a higher cost of care. So I just was having a conversation with a DVM yesterday, about even if owners can't afford that, at least we can discuss all the options and then find one. That sounds weird, but like fits the family's budget while still providing care. So those are kind of big cases that are referred, but I would say it's never wrong.

Host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, and Amy Thomson, DVM, DAVDC,
discuss the importance working with a dental specialist

Tooth be told! Partnering with dental specialists

One of our first Vet Blast Podcast guests of 2023 was Jan Bellows, DVM, DAVDC, DABVP, FAVD. On this episode, Bellows and Dr Christman discuss what new and exciting things were in the veterinary dentistry pipeline for 2023.

We have compiled a countdown of our top Vet Blast Podcast Episodes in 2023, here is number 3

Top Vet Blast Podcast episodes of 2023: #3

Although February is National Pet Dental Health Month, pet oral care is something that veterinary professionals and their clients should be thinking of all year round. To learn what is to come for veterinary dentistry this year, Jan Bellows, DVM, DAVDC, DABVP, FAVD, joins The Vet Blast Podcast host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to offer a preview. 

Below is a partial transcript. Listen to the full podcast for more.

: Yes. I mean, because generally, [researchers] actually did a research project out of the University of California that if you just find one dental lesion somewhere, there is a 50% chance that there will be others. So for veterinarians, just X raying what they think is a problem and not doing the full mouth, they're missing a lot of disease. Plus, wonderfully, is that so many clinics are offering wellness plans now that include dentistry and includes full mouth X-rays. So there's nothing to sell other than the wellness plan and in our practice, not only do they get the full mouth X-rays, they get a CT also once a year. I mean, it's just, it's a great plan.

Interested in attending Bellows' keynote and the other sessions at our upcoming conference in Charlotte, North Carolina? Learn more and register 

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Dr Jan Bellows sits down to talk about what is on the horizon for veterinary dentistry

What's new in dentistry for 2023?

Happy National Pet Dental Health Month! To start the month-long campaign to raise awareness of dental health in veterinary medicine, Curt Coffman, DVM, FAVD, DAVDC, national specialty director of dentistry at Thrive Pet Healthcare, joins Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss all things dental. The duo discusses everything from the importance of dental care to new treatments and care happening.

: The mouth is the entrance to the body and so if it doesn't work correctly or if it's inflamed or uncomfortable, then the pet can't get the nutrients properly that they need. And so that's the first thing you know, and because it's a it's a portal to the insides, it's also for the good things like nutrients. If if there if it's infected or inflamed, then it's an avenue for that infection or inflammation to go to other organ systems or other places in the body. So if we don't take care of it, then it's going to lead to other problems, not just locally in the mouth, but you know, regionally and systemically.

Kick off National Pet Dental Health Month with this dentistry episode of The Vet Blast Podcast

What's new with the "Dentistry Lane" across the veterinary profession?

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Adam Christman, DVM, MBA sits down with Emily Stein, PhD and CEO at Teef For Life, to talk about the microbiome and how it affects medicine and nutrition. 

: Yeah, so we've kind of we've been realizing that [microorganisms] eat before we do, and we just absorb the waste products. And so the goal, like what I'm really aiming to do, is feed the microbiome in a way that sculpts who lives in that microbial compartment, and what they secrete so I decrease waste products that cause inflammation or lead to cancer down the road. I'm really trying to minimize that. So, the goal is really to understand the microbial metabolism and their nutrient requirements that you want to feed them so that you're ultimately feeding the cat or the dog or the horse the right kind of diet for their health.

Emily Stein, PhD, explains how the oral and gut microbiomes impact animal health

What’s bugging you? Updates in veterinary microbiology

During an interview on The Vet Blast Podcast, Jan Bellows, DVM, DAVDC, DABVP, FAVD, shared an anecdote illustrating the evolution of small-animal dentistry and the possibility that oral microbiome research brings. Recalling a time 25 years ago when a group of veterinary professionals were asked about their greastest challenges, he said:

"The 2 biggest problems were stomatitis and tooth resorption. We still didn't know at that time what causes [them] and we didn't know how to best treat [them] other than a lot of extractions. Now, there's a chance that we can diagnose it early, and hopefully with a microbiome [test], maybe we can change that, and maybe that's part of the etiology...I had never thought it would come in my lifetime, and I'm glad it's coming in my lifetime."

Listen to the full podcast below for more.

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Jan Bellows, DVM, DAVDC, DABVP, FAVD, shares why oral microbiome testing has him excited about the possibilities for small-animal dentistry. 

Episode 79: Oral microbiome and the future of veterinary dentistry

Kash Kuruppu, DVM and chief veterinary officer at Basepaws, goes into detail about the company's oral microbiome testing and how it can help veterinary professionals detect dental disease earlier. 

"Currently we're able to look at the oral microbiome and detect tooth resorption risk, halitosis risk, as well as periodontal disease. So as vets, we already know that if we're seeing tooth resorption or any dental disease in really early stages, there's likely a genetic component."

Kuruppu added that early detection is just the first step. Basepaws plans to take the data it is accumulating and apply it to actionable reccomendations for clinicans and pet parents. 

"Now what we're actually thinking about is how do we affect change? How do we actually do something if we know the risk? It's one thing to know that you're predisposed...Great, but what do I do? And that's where veterinarians really want to know, 'Okay, what can I recommend? What kind of interventions should I be recommending and implementing?' And pet parents want to know this as well. So that's kind of the next step, not just for Basepaws, but the industry as a whole," said Kuruppu

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Dr Adam Christman interviews Kash Kuruppu, DVM, about how the oral microbiome is quickly becoming an important marker in the early detection of dental disease. 

Episode 77: Tools for predicting underlying and future dental disease

Hey, friends, welcome back to The Vet Blast Podcast. I'm so excited to talk about dentistry. The listeners are thinking, "Wait, we heard this before," we are going to talk about the teamwork approach to dental care because it's not just 1 person, there is a whole boatload of us that need to make sure we get that compliance in line. So, joining us today is Dr. Mary Berg. How are you, my friend?

Mary L. Berg, BS, RVT, RLATG, VTS (Dentistry)

: I am doing wonderful. Thank you for having me.

: My pleasure. We're really excited that we're going to be chatting with all things healthcare team and elevating the dental conversations to promote dental health. It's always such a huge and important topic, especially now so more than ever too. So, I just think that we're excited that you're here and we're going to be joining us and we're going to get all into it. So, we got to give a special shout out to our friends from 

 for sponsoring today's podcast. Alright, so to our listeners that may or may not know about our friend Mary Berg, my goodness, where have you been?

Mary is a member of the Academy of Veterinary Dental Technicians. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology and microbiology at South Dakota State University, an Associate’s degree in laboratory animal science at Redlands Community College, and another Associate's degree in veterinary technology from St. Petersburg College. She received her veterinary technician specialty in dentistry in 2006. For nearly 3 decades, Mary worked in research where she specialized in products aimed at improving the oral health of companion animals.

She has also served as a practice manager and dental specialist at general practice. She teaches veterinary technology and she is president of 

—a veterinary dental consulting service. Mary is actively involved in NAVTA, tAVDT, and KVTA and she has served on committees for the AVMA and AAVSB. She has authored or coauthored over 70 publications. So, I couldn't think of a better person to talk more about dental care than you, my friend. So, let's get into it. We know that dental care is so important to keep our pets healthy. We know it should be discussed with pet owners early and often which requires a teamwork approach. So, what are the roles of each team member? (And by role members, we're talking about the CSRs, the technicians, the assistants, [and] the veterinarians in the dental care discussion for pets.)

Mary L. Berg, BS, RVT, RLATG, VTS (Dentistry): 

I think everybody on the team has to be excited about it, because if 1 person has a kind of an 'eh' attitude towards dentistry, that's going to get to the client. So, let's start with the CSRs. I am really a big believer that we all know they're the first line— [they are] the first person the client sees when they walk into the practice and also the last person. So, [CSRs] really have to be on board with dentistry, and that means there are some great opportunities for them to get a little bit more knowledge about dentistry. [CSRs] don't have to be the one that knows everything, but they have to have a positive attitude towards it and they understand that good at-home care and regular dental cleanings is going to make for a healthier pet.

The next one in the line is probably going to be your veterinary assistants and technicians. They are really the pet advocate and client educators. So, they are going to be doing not only a lot of the procedure itself, but they're the ones who are going to be talking to the client and kind of getting them on board with doing the dental procedure. In addition to that, you know, a technician can really pretty much take ownership of dentistry within their practice, with the exception of diagnosing and performing oral surgeries. So, you know, they can be the "go-to" person in the veterinary hospital when it comes to dental procedures.

Then of course, we have the veterinarian, you know, they're the team leader, right? They're the ones who are going to be making sure that all of their team is educated gets the best education they can as far as dentistry, giving out quality and good information to the pet owners, and of course, they're going to be the bottom line for some of the questions that the client may have. So, it really becomes a true team effort. If you are a practice that may even still do some boarding, even your kennel assistants should have at least a working knowledge of dentistry and maybe lift that lip when the pet is dropped off for boarding and offered to either brush the teeth when the pet is there. Or to go ahead and you know mention "Hey, you know I see a lot of redness in his mouth a lot of tartar buildup. Are you okay? Would you like 1 of our technicians to look at him while he's here? Maybe we can clean him while he is boarding?" So, we have all these different things that everybody has to be excited about. They don't have to be the cheerleader dental diva that I am, but they still have to be excited about dentistry.

Yeah, they really do. Nothing irks me more. Sometimes when I hear these stories where you know, the pet owner will be in the exam room—I'll leave and make my recommendation move on to the next appointment, and then they'll go to the veterinary technician and say, "Do I really need to get his teeth cleaned?" And then you could have a technician that may go, "Eh."

Maybe, maybe not. Yeah, I mean, that happened with not only technicians but also even at the front desk, you know. So it's like, "Oh, I would never put my pet under anesthesia for this." So everybody has to understand the value, and I think it's always really good to have that story of the animal who 3 days after a dental procedure was suddenly acting like a puppy again. Even if it's the—especially if it would be one of the front desk people's pets, they could be really the real cheerleaders for the procedure.

Yeah, they really are. So then switching gears. So from talking from the veterinary team, we also have to talk to the pet parents, of course, too. So what is your take on talking to them about dental care? More specifically, I'm sure that conversation is different when we talk about it with the new puppy, and even maybe the new rescue that might be older too. So you know, how do we have that kind of conversation with them?

Well, I'm a big believer, and we start early, and that of course, starts with those puppy visits. Now, I used to say, let's start at that very first puppy visit, and then I, you know, kind of saw their eyes glaze over. We're talking all the vaccine protocols, crate training, potty training, diet, nutrition, all this, and pretty soon, they're just, you know, like, "Oh, my God, I can't absorb one more thing." So, let's bring [dental care] in at maybe the second or third puppy visit, and really start talking about how important it is to have that pet allow you to touch their teeth and to work with their mouth. Explain that it's a slow process, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of reward for the pet to accept tooth brushing or whatever they might be using for that pet, but they need to be able to lift the lip and look.

When it comes to older pets or, you know newly adopted pets, you have to really kind of assess where their mouth is at, before we get too involved. I wouldn't want to take an older pet that has a pretty severe disease and start introducing a toothbrush, because it's going to be really painful and that pet is going to be kind of upset with you and probably will never let you touch their mouth again. So, we have to make sure we're having these conversations based on what the condition of the mouth is and really helping the pet owners understand that if we can keep that mouth cleaner—and I know it's anecdotal, there are no studies that prove this—but we can probably get 1 to 2, maybe 3 years more life for that pet because they do have a healthy oral cavity.

Right? Yeah. And then with that, there's got to be some challenges that you have when communicating with pet owners about dental care—and this goes for both, you know, dog parents and cat parents. So, what are some of the challenges that you hear?

Well, a lot of times, you know, we tend to do a lot of data dumping, you know, when we're in the exam rooms. I've seen you know, veterinarians do this, I've done it, and what happens is we tend to overwhelm pet owners. So, I think it's really important that we have a conversation with them more so than the data dumping of all the information we could give them. We really need to find out what [ owners] already know about dentistry, and if they're doing anything already. Have they ever had a pet's teeth clean? If they are concerned about dental cleaning, we have to kind of validate their fears, but then we want to educate them on how things are done now—what are we doing here at this practice so that we can get buy-in into our recommendations?

In addition to that, we want to realize that sometimes we as veterinary professionals get tired of saying the same thing day after day, hour after hour and we tend to kind of either sound like we're bored, or we assume our clients already know this stuff. We have to always keep in mind that this might be the first time this client has heard what we're talking about—and that goes for dentistry, that goes for flea and tick protection, [and] that goes for any kind of preventative thing that we're doing for their pets. So, it's really important we realize that they may not have heard it before. Another thing that really helps when it comes to communicating with the pet owner is, let's say you have recommended a dental procedure and put together that treatment plan estimate. You can't just hand it to the owner, they're going to look at it and kind of have a, you know, like "Oh my god, what is this?" Go through it, sit down with them, go through why every step is really important, and then they're going to be more likely to have buy-in to doing the dental procedure. So, it really is having that conversation. I think one of the other things we do quite a bit is we tend to use medical jargon or lingo that we've picked up and sometimes the owners don't understand what we're saying. Think about maybe that first time you were in vet school or vet tech school, and they were going through terminology courses, and you're like, "Oh my god, what is this language we're speaking," right? And we forget that the pet owner might not know that. So, a lot of times when it comes to any kind of really severe dental disease, I'm going to use the words 'pain' and 'infection' because clients understand those more so than periodontal disease. So, those are the kind of ways that I like to communicate with my pet owners.

: Yeah, no, that's great. I always feel to as a veterinarian, I find that the unknown is what's a little scary to pet owners. So, what we've learned to do is we've shown them. We actually take them to the back, and we show them the treatment from start to finish—what everything looks like. So, [we] show them with an endotracheal tube is [and] the reason why they may cough a little bit after the procedure because of the tube. Because when [owners] hear "anesthesia," they just think that [their pets] just get knocked out—they don't realize maybe there is a tube. Then we show them the technicians that [are] monitoring the dental radiography, we show them the "why" before we show them the price. We show them where they're recovering, we'll send you pictures when they're done, we're going to show you before and after pictures, because I'm sure to your point, that's probably going to be one of the biggest hiccups is the price at the bottom.

In this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Mary L. Berg, BS, RVT, RLATG, VTS (Dentistry), offers up critical insight to help veterinary professionals educate and encourage clients to prioritize their pets dental health. (Sponsored by Virbac)

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