Facial and Oral Surgery
Since oral maladies require a multitude of skill sets necessary to treat the pet’s presenting problems, a Board Certified Veterinary Dentist / Oral Surgeon must be accomplished in all treatment disciplines. Over the three year intensive residency program, our doctors learn how to correct many congenital and developmental oral maladies using facial and oral surgery.
Traumatic jaw fractures often occur in households with many pets. Usually it is an altercation between large and small animals over the food or owner’s attention. These painful injuries, and subsequent inability of the pet to eat, severely weaken them and prevent the normal wound healing. Through proper understanding of oral anatomy and the restoration of an animal’s normal occlusion, our doctors can allow the pet to regain its jaw function and normal feeding.
Oral cancer is a very common presenting problem of our pets. Like in human medicine, early detection and treatment can be curative. Our doctors are surgically skilled to diagnose and treat tumors with oral surgery before they impact the animal’s life. Through advanced CT imaging to detect the extent of cancer spread and exact surgical removal allows the best chances of the pet’s survival. These types of surgeries require often elaborate facial reconstruction to allow enhanced healing and cosmetic appearance.
The Animal Dental Center frequently treats animals with congenital or traumatic cleft palates. Often in facial development, especially in the brachiocephalic breeds, the development of the roof of the mouth is altered and a visible hole connecting the oral cavity with the nasal passage is seen. If uncorrected this leads to chronic nasal disease and altered ability to swallow. Through special techniques our doctors can repair these holes and restore normal function.
- Mandibulectomies and maxillectomies for cancer treatment - removal of a portion or the entirety of the bone teeth and soft tissues of the mandible (lower jaw) or maxilla (upper jaw).
- Jaw fracture intraoral stabilization and fixation - placement of a combination of wire and/or cold cure acrylic material to form a splint to reduce and stabilize fracture segments in the mandible or maxilla.
- Cleft palate and oral wound repairs - involve manipulating the various soft tissues within the oral cavity to repair developmental or traumatic defects often while restoring the separate integrity of the oral and nasal cavities.
- Diagnostic sinusotomies and rhinotomies - involve making a surgical approach into the nasal cavity or a sinus cavity for the purpose of collecting a tissue biopsy or culture samples.
- Surgical extraction of diseased multi-rooted teeth or impacted teeth - surgical extraction involves making a surgical approach to the tooth by lifting a flap and removing areas of bone overlying the roots, or in the case of an impacted tooth, the roots and crown of the tooth prior to removing them.
- Feline total mouth extractions for the treatment of Lymphocytic / Plasmacytic Gingivitis Stomatitis - extraction of all of the teeth whether healthy or diseased is part of the recommended treatment for feline stomatitis. In simplified terms stomatitis can be thought of as a severe allergy to plaque and the bacteria which inhabit it. As long as a cat has any teeth present there will be plaque retaining surfaces. So long as there is plaque there will be wide spread and painful inflammation in the oral cavity. Removal of the plaque retaining surfaces is the first and most important step in resolving the inflammation of stomatitis.
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