The term anesthesia-free dental cleaning is misleading because it leaves the impression that after one of these procedures, your pet’s mouth is clean, healthy, and free of disease. Your pet’s teeth may appear whiter after a non-anesthetic dental cleaning but it does not mean your pet’s mouth is healthy. It is impossible to completely evaluate a dog or cat’s mouth without anesthesia. What you cannot see is actually more important than what you can see! Problems like plaque build-up below the gum line and gingivitis are not properly addressed during a non-anesthetic procedure that only scrapes the visible crowns of the teeth. Most oral disease happens below the gum line of your dog’s or cat’s mouth.

Non-professional, non-anesthetic dental scaling can potentially give pet owners a false sense of security about the state of their dog or cat’s oral health. Many older dogs and cats that have undergone anesthesia-free dental procedures for years develop significant dental and oral disease requiring multiple extractions as they age. 

Without anesthesia, some sort of physical restraint must be used on your dog or cat so that the provider can access the animal’s teeth. While some pets may tolerate this type of treatment, most pets will need to be restrained for a lengthy period of time with no ability to understand what is happening to them. Periodontal disease is common at any age. Areas of the mouth that have periodontal disease can be extremely sensitive leading to significant pain in an awake animal when those areas are cleaned.

During anesthesia-free dental care, the surfaces of your pet’s teeth are scaled with an instrument but not polished leaving microscopic grooves in the pet’s teeth and a rough surface prime for the adherence of more bacteria. This is definitely not healthy for your pet and can lead to even worse plaque and tartar formation. 

We hope you will call us for more information before you have your pet’s teeth cleaned without anesthesia.