Struggling to get pet owners on board with dental care for their pets? In this episode of The Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast, host Dr. Andy Roark tackles this common challenge with the help of board-certified veterinary dentist and oral surgeon Dr. Amy Thomson, aka “Toothy Thompson.” Together, they discuss practical strategies to inspire pet owners to adopt home dental care routines that actually get done. From realistic toothbrushing techniques to advice on leveraging treats and routines, Dr. Thomson shares actionable tips and communication strategies tailored for veterinary teams to use in exam rooms. Whether you’re a veterinarian or practice manager, this episode delivers the tools you need to improve client compliance, enhance pet oral health, and ultimately support longer, healthier lives for pets. Don’t miss this motivating and insightful conversation!
You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!
LINKS
American Veterinary Dental College: https://avdc.org/
Amy Thomson IG: https://www.instagram.com/toothy.thomson/
Amy Thomson website: https://toothythomson.ca
Dr. Andy Roark Charming the Angry Client Team Training Course: https://drandyroark.com/charming-the-angry-client/
Dr. Andy Roark Swag: drandyroark.com/shop
All Links: linktr.ee/DrAndyRoark
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Dr. Amy Thomson is a specialist in small animal dentistry & oral surgery. She began her career in small animal general practice and while challenging at times she was fortunate to gain a great deal of dentistry CE. The more she learned the more her passion for dentistry grew as well as a desire to become a specialist. While Dr. Amy enjoys all aspects of clinical practice as Board Certified Veterinary DentistTM, she also very much enjoys providing continuing education for all veterinary professionals in small animal general practice. There is a huge demand for veterinary dentistry and oral care, and she wants to support general practice teams to provide the best care to their patients.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Andy Roark: Welcome, everybody, to the Cone of Shame veterinary
podcast. I am your host, Dr. Andrew Roark. I am here with board
certified dentist and oral surgeon Dr. Amy Thompson, or Toothy
Thompson, as she’s known online on her socials. I am talking to her
about home dental care that actually gets done. I’m on this kick right now
about really thinking deeply about how to advise pet owners to increase
the lifespan and quality of life of their pets.
Like, if I could make a program that would give you the highest chance
possible of having your dog or cat live to age 25. What program would
that be? And obviously, it’s going to have a nutrition component. It’s
going to have sort of an orthopedic wellness fitness component. It’s
going to have a dental health component.
And so that’s what I talked to Amy about is how do I communicate this to
pet owners? What would you put into a program like this? And again, the
emphasis here is not on what’s ideal. What can we actually get pet
owners to do and she has strong thoughts and so that’s what we talked
about today It is a good episode.
It’s really it’s motivating. It makes me want to jump back in there and
work with my dog And I think i’m probably going to do that. I think i’m I
may even film it and see how it goes So anyway, that’s kind of where my
head’s at. This is a great fun episode It’ll inspire you get you talking
about dentistry again.
Let’s get into this episode
Kelsey Beth Carpenter: This is your show. We’re glad you’re here. We
want to help you in your veterinary career. Welcome to the Cone of
Shame with Dr. Andy Roark.
Dr. Andy Roark: Welcome to the podcast. Dr. Amy Thompson. Thanks
for being here.
Dr. Amy Thomson: Hi. Thanks so much for having me
Dr. Andy Roark: back.
I love having you back. You are such a joy to talk to. You just have this
infectious energy. It’s, it’s why you are growing such a nice little
presence on social media. Your passion and enthusiasm for dentistry
just comes through.
You’re one of those people who has the ability to I want to say infect, but
yeah, infect other people with your enthusiasm. Like I feel. excited and
sort of inspired about, about dentistry and what’s possible after I talked
to you. And I just, I really think it’s a gift that you have. And so I like to
keep that medicine fun and upbeat and I like to get sort of reenergized.
And I think that one of the gifts that you have is that you are able to sort
of instill this energy into other people. And so anyway, I appreciate that
you make time to come and talk with us.
Dr. Amy Thomson: Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet. Thank you so much.
That means so much. I just, I love teeth. I’m excited about it, and I’m
excited to see our colleagues get excited about it.
Dr. Andy Roark: I told you this when we first started chatting before,
before I hit record on the podcast here, but I’ll say it again, the thing I
think I, one of the things I really admire about you, I think is so great
about you and your story is that you were a general practitioner with not
a particularly great level of interest in dentistry and then there as a
doctor, this wasn’t picked up in vet school, you sort of started to fall in
love with this piece of that medicine and you were able to go back into a
residency and really make this your life.
And there’s so many vets and technicians that I talked to or see who at
some point come to feel kind of stuck in basic general practice. And I
just I love to see people like you and try to hold up people like you who
did general practice, liked it just fine, but then decided to, Make it into
something different you found something that you loved and decided to
do more of that And you were really able to kind of bend the profession
to your will and kind of make for yourself what you wanted to have And
so I just think that’s an important part of your background as we start to
talk about this because the other thing I always like to talk about with
you really is communication to pet owners and the fact that When you’re
a specialist, you see a certain type of pet owner, and maybe that’s not
what you see as a general practitioner, but, but you have that
experience talking to GP clients. And so I really think that you’re a
uniquely wonderful resource here. So anyway that’s kind of what, why I
sort of reached out to you. I’ve got this, I’ve got this wild idea, Amy, and
I’m really getting into this idea of longevity in pets.
I really am starting to think about. What could I do if I was a pet owner to
increase the likelihood of my dog living to be 20? Or 25, or 30. And I
think about this because, I’m just being transparent, I’m not getting
younger myself, and my parents are getting older and things like that.
And so I’ve been doing some reading on human longevity and things
that that are helpful in, in helping people have not just quality of life, but
quantity of life.
And I see so many parallels in pets. And as I’m thinking about this and I
say, I would like to advise pet owners as their veterinarian, I would like to
be able to guide them or at least support them in the idea. Let’s make
your dog live 20 years. And so dental health has got to be a part of that.
Like we know that weight control and dental health are probably and
behavior are probably the three big things that really impact longevity for
pets.
I think that’s probably the things that are most in our control. And so
what I wanted to talk with you about today is what’s really feasible for pet
owners as far as home dental care? Because I, you know, I’m in the
exam room and I’m talking to them and they’re, and it always comes up.
It always comes up when you say your pet needs to get their teeth
cleaned and they go, Oh, well, what could I do at home? And that’s a
whole different thing. But it’s a whole different thing. But what if I
empower them to What can we do better at home? What can we talk to
them about as far as home health care that they could start at an at a
young age to really try to increase their pets quality of life and quantity of
life.
And so let me sort of pause here for a second and sort of hand this over
to you and say, Amy, when we talk about home dental care. How
optimistic are you here? And, and, and what is sort of your approach to
this? Because I know that, you know, the absolute best practices, but
also I’m sort of reaching out to you because of the pragmatism that you
have about what will they actually do?
And so I don’t want to give them a presentation that they just politely
smile through going. I’m not going to do any of this. So help me sort of
get started with, with that approach.
Dr. Amy Thomson: Yeah, for sure. And I’m so eager to talk about this.
And I think it’s funny, and I enjoy it. I was very honest when you reached
out, like, let’s talk about dental home care that owners will
Dr. Andy Roark: We’ll actually do.
Dr. Amy Thomson: the subtext to that is, not toothbrushing. And I think
I wrote back like, totally pleased to, but we will talk about
Dr. Andy Roark: But we’re going to talk about toothbrush today.
Dr. Amy Thomson: We’re going to talk about toothbrushing. And I think,
It can go back to that conversation of, all over here, we need, you know,
we’ve got gingivitis, I’m concerned, we need to do a cleaning, and, you
know, we start talking about that and the expense of that, and that’s
something we need to do, but what can we do to preserve that health or
maintain that health as long as possible?
And I mean, sometimes just, being frank and honest with owners of,
listen, tooth brushing, there’s nothing better. If there was anything better,
we’d be doing it for our health. I just broach that and just say, I know you
are thinking this isn’t gonna happen, or a lot of owners are like, yeah, I
tried, he hates it, it doesn’t go well.
I’m like, great, I’m so glad you tried. May I ask what didn’t work? And I
would say 99 times out of a hundred, the owners will say, Oh, they’re
chewing on the toothbrush and they’re like spitting it out of their mouth.
And I’m like, okay, tip number one, you’re going to like, so my tip number
one is that don’t brush your pet’s teeth.
Like you brush your own teeth. And I think that that’s something really
important to acknowledge. We’re all brushing our teeth every day. We’re
doing a pretty good job at it. So naturally, if we’re just being told Okay,
brush your dog’s teeth, we’re going to do it the same way we do our
own. Which makes sense.
I will say, listen, brushing every surface of your pet’s teeth, The reality of
that happening daily is about 0. 1 percent chance because they don’t
want anything in their mouth. They’re like, this is weird. We don’t want it
in there. Their tongue is being hit the roof of their mouth. It’s not really
that pleasant.
We do it because we know that we need to, but they don’t know the
benefit of it. So I actually say, I would love you to brush all the surface of
the teeth. And that is what I would call like super advanced gold
standard brushing. But let’s just talk about being consistent, like with
anything in life, learning a language, training for a marathon.
It’s more about consistency than what you’re actually doing. And so I say
I’m right handed. So take your left hand, make an L and just wrap it
around their little muzzle. Just soft, like no firm, or not white, not linear,
just enough to encourage them to keep their teeth clenched. And then I
take my toothbrush, or I’ll start with a finger, and then I just stick it in their
cheek pouch, so they can keep their mouth closed, and I just rub the
outside surfaces of their teeth.
And we’ll do that in the exam room. I’ll get in there with a finger. I won’t
use a toothbrush. And I’ll just say like four to five swipes back and forth.
And most dogs and cats for that matter, that are just like, hell no, they
will tolerate pretty okay. And then the owners have this moment of like,
Oh, well that wasn’t terrible.
And I’m like, you know, this is the goal. The goal is to get the brushing
back and forth. But if you can just start touching a tooth, and then giving
them a treat, which is tip number two. Cats don’t get cavities. Less than
5 percent of dogs get cavities. I’ve treated two dogs with cavities in the
last year.
Very rare. So unlike you and I, where we’re going to eat and then brush,
you can actually brush and then feed them. And I don’t know about you,
Andy, but I’m very food motivated. So,
Dr. Andy Roark: Yeah,
Dr. Amy Thomson: if I’m going to get my meal or a tasty snack
afterwards, after repetitions, you know, like four or five, 20 repetitions,
our pets are smart.
They know where the treat bowl is. They know when treat time comes.
As long as we keep it positive, keep it short, keep it positive. They tend
to be like is it really that bad? I get the treat afterwards. So I really like to
talk to owners about those being my two main tips is focus on the
outside, make it positive.
I mean, some pets, very few, are not food motivated, but I’ve had, like, a
cat owner use the cat loves being brushed. Okay? Just touch a little
tooth, brush, brush, brush, touch a little, and work up to that.
Dr. Andy Roark: I like it. That’s awesome. It’s funny. It matches up what
I was just thinking today because I was, I was out walking Skipper and
he is, he’s super treat motivated. It’s just really funny. It took me an
embarrassingly long time to figure out how treat motivated he was and
that he’s a wonderfully compliant dog.
As long as I have treats in my pocket and you know, and It doesn’t have
to be anything extreme for, you know, for him, like the little crunchy low
calorie milk bones. He goes nuts for
Dr. Amy Thomson: Mm hmm.
Dr. Andy Roark: This is not a big lift, but boy, I fought a lot of battles. I
didn’t need to if I had just gone heavier on the treats at the very
beginning.
Dr. Amy Thomson: Yeah. Yeah, and it’s you know, we’ll show them in
the exam room Like this is ultimately what I want to get to but like you’re
not gonna start, you know You’re not gonna just put on the shoes and
run the half marathon, right? you’re gonna start by like walking around
the block and then maybe Jogging for one minute walking like so we’re
gonna have to build but the biggest key is consistency So like keeping it
relatively positive if that means just touching a tooth and they get a
cookie Great because we’re building on that.
This isn’t so bad. This is a positive And yeah, I mean I think I’ve heard
before it takes 21 days to build a habit. So like we need to, we need to
commit some repetitions here put some reps in, but it’s amazing, you
know, like my technician’s cat will come and wait to have his teeth
brushed when it gets to be, cause they know it’s dinnertime and like, this
is a routine.
We do the tooth brushing and then we get our bowl of food. And I’ve had
pets in the past that we did it at bedtime. And so anytime after 8 PM, you
go in the bathroom, the dog’s following you. And they’re like, okay, I’m
ready. You know, we can really use that, Pavlovian dogs, really, that
classical conditioning to our advantage.
Dr. Andy Roark: this a lot. I can honestly see this working into my
routine.
One of the things you said that I really loved is just the way you can turn
a phrase. When you say, you know, if there was something better than
brushing teeth, then we would do it ourselves. And I was like, oh, that’s a
really good phrase.
Amy, how do you give the value proposition before we’re talking about
dental disease or periodontal disease. You know what I mean? So what
I’m saying is I saw, okay, just as an example, let’s say that I saw a 16
week old puppy slash kitten yesterday, and they came in, everybody’s
happy they’re playful, they have, they still have their puppy and kitten
teeth How do I start talking at that point so that the pet owners hear me,
right?
It’s much easier to wait until they have periodontal disease and say, ah,
yeah we don’t want to have to clean these teeth as super often. Let’s get
them clean and then you can start doing this so that we can hold this off.
And there’s sort of, they’ve experienced some pain.
They’ve kind of seen what intervention looks like. And so I feel like
you’ve, At least I feel like I have more leverage to have that conversation
but that’s not ideal. Really, I would love to get them started when there’s
not a fleck of tartar on any of the teeth. And, you know what I mean?
And not wait until we’ve had this sort of like car crash and then we’re
like, Oh, well, let’s not do that again. So how do you, do you have any
good ways or phrases to sort of try to sell them on the value of making
this commitment? When there’s no periodontal disease, there’s no sign
of disease at all.
Dr. Amy Thomson: Yeah, no, that’s great. And obviously, maybe not
obviously, but you know, this, the earlier we’re teaching our pets, the
better, because, as babies, they don’t really know quote unquote yet
what is totally normal. So that whole, you can’t teach an old dog new
trick. I don’t agree with. We can teach them anything, but certainly
starting younger is better.
Prevention or maintenance is definitely better than treatment. I mean, it’s
been many, many years, but I, but back in the day when I was in general
practice and it’s hard to fit everything in a puppy visit, but I would just
say, you know, everything’s looking good. And I would at least make
sure there was a conversation like, okay, we’ve got, baby teeth.
We’re starting normally around 16 weeks. We’re starting to see some
adult teeth come in. And so at least have the conversation of like, I was
told many, many years ago, talk through your physical exam. Cause if
you’re just doing your physical exam, owners aren’t realizing how much
we’re picking, like we’re looking the mouth, we’re checking the gums,
we’re checking the teeth, the occlusion, things like that.
And so I’d talk through it like, really happy occlusions, normal, like We
don’t need to address anything with the teeth now, which is wonderful.
Certainly, you know, just mentioning, you know, I really am about
preventative care, really want to keep fluffy as healthy as we can moving
forward.
And so the num, the number one and number two disease that we’re
going to deal with is going to be periodontal disease and obesity. So let’s
really talk about that. So like with cats, meal feeding, even dogs meal
feeding, so then we can better assess what they’re eating, how much
they’re eating, if they need to go on a diet.
It’s something we can do if you end up having more than one pet in the
house, we can manage that. So we’ll talk about meal feeding and then
the other thing I would say is now is the time to get them used to tooth
brushing. Because it’s going to take a while. for you both to get proficient
at it, for them to accept it, for you to remember every day.
And so like the baby teeth are just like our trainers, right? Like they are
going to exfoliate most of them. Some of them will be persistent. We’ll
address those at spay and neuter, but most of them are going to fall out.
So if it takes us a couple of months to get it figured out, then once the
adult teeth come in and now we’re primed and ready.
And I will always say, tooth brushing is not going to remove the need for
regular professional cleaning like we brush our teeth multiple times a
day We still go to the dentist But shifting away from like avoiding
professional care and shifting that to keeping it them healthy longer, less
extractions, which means less surgical time, which means less
anesthesia time, less overall costs, less risk not needing to heal.
Like I would absolutely like my heaven is All pets get their teeth brushed,
they get professional cleanings once a year, and we’re not dealing with
extractions. So then the day after they have their teeth cleaned, we’re
back to brushing instead of taking a break and allowing that plaque and
calculus to build up.
And so, and then with my really tiny dogs, I’ll say, you know, like,
unfortunately I’d love to see a shift. I hope in my career I’ll see a shift, but
because home care hasn’t been a huge part of veterinary medicine
when it comes to dental home care cause there’s just so many things to
deal with.
And tooth brushing, everyone’s like, ah, they hate it. They don’t like it.
We’ll buy this treat or whatever. But like 90 percent of toy breed dogs will
have periodontitis by the time they’re one year old which is crazy. And a
lot of owners are like, my pet’s only five. How is this possible?
And I’m like. They’re only five. I mean, they’re doing well. They’re beyond
the, the curve because at a year, sometimes I’ll see puppies come in at
ten months. To have persistent deciduous teeth taken out and they’ve
already got gingivitis. They’ve got enough calculus that they’ve got
gingivitis.
So Sometimes just sharing those facts of it’s not gonna remove the need
For professional care, but it’s gonna decrease the severity of disease
which is gonna then decrease You know the overall anesthesia time the
number of visits the cost is a big one I think is you know, we have to be
transparent That is a big part about professional dental care because it
does require anesthesia to be done appropriately.
I think just trying to focus on, okay, we’re the healthiest. We’re all the
healthiest, generally speaking, when we’re younger. And then while age
isn’t a disease, as we age we’re more likely to develop disease and
periodontitis, periodontal diseases. Unfortunately, number one. But it is
something we can fight with a toothbrush, and it is something if caught
soon enough, we can actually reverse, which I think we’ve talked about.
I really nerd out about that because, you know, once you’ve got a
disease, we’re managing it. But if we’re seeing these patients when
we’ve got gingivitis, but no ligament loss, no bone loss, I Thorough and
thorough, deep cleaning actually will reverse that inflammation and reset
to zero to no disease, which really lights me on fire because that’s, I
think that’s so cool.
Like, normally, once we’ve got a disease, we’re just managing it. So if we
can really work together, I say, like, what I’m gonna do is only one day.
364 is on you, and so I just really want to be a team and keep this mouth
as healthy as possible because, like you said at the intro, like, our oral
health is really the gateway to our entire body and that’s a lot of bacteria,
like a ton of bacteria that sits in that plaque and calculus.
And then once we get inflammation in the gums, we can get that in the
bloodstream, and so, you know, a healthy mouth is a healthy pet.
Dr. Andy Roark: Yeah. Oh, definitely. What do you like? Do you like a,
do you like a toothbrush? Do you like gauze pads? Do you like the finger
brush? Are you neutral? If I’m starting with a dog or a cat from the very
beginning, am I trying to get them to a soft bristle toothbrush? Or are you
okay with the finger, gauze pads, things like that for the long term?
Dr. Amy Thomson: Yeah. I’m a big fan of a toothbrush. It needs to be
soft bristle. Basically all like dog cat toothbrushes are going to generally
be soft bristle. I actually still have, maybe it’s weird. I still have a little
raisins nose, pediatric toothbrush. So pediatric toothbrushes are great
for really small dogs and cats because we want to disrupt that biofilm.
So my worry is if we’re using something that’s not a little bit abrasive, like
we don’t want it super abrasive, but we need something to break up that
film. And then so my worry is sometimes if you can get those really fine, I
think they sell them as like cat toothbrushes. But I use them for small
dogs as well, but like it’s smaller, like I have small hands, but it’s
narrower than my pinky.
And so you can really, and it’s got a long handle, so you can really get
back. So I personally prefer getting to a toothbrush. Now that may start
with like a finger and then a wipe and that kind of thing. But honestly, like
any sort of mechanical debridement of that biofilm is going to be ideal.
But my goal is to get to a toothbrush.
Dr. Andy Roark: that makes sense. Are you worried if you start to
introduce alternatives to toothbrushes, or supplemental tools, right?
When we start talking about shoes and things, are you seeing this as a
good thing to introduce in the conversation? Or are you worried that you
are giving them alternatives to the toothbrush?
For example, if I say to you, Hey Hey, pet owner, I’ve got this thing that I
want you to do. And you go, well, I’m not going to do it. And I say here’s
a thing that’s significantly easier. Did I just let them completely off the
hook for the first thing? And, and I don’t know, do you have that thought?
Are you okay? You know they’re going to bring it up. They’re going to
say, Well, what else? Or, what do you think about these rinses? Or, I do
antlers. Do you like antlers? They’re going to say those things. You know
they’re going to say them, you know? I heard, I got antlers yesterday.
Yesterday, I got
Dr. Amy Thomson: My gosh. It kills me, it kills me the antlers. Yeah, so
I think, I think that unfortunately and again as it, like, all I do is teeth,
right? So, like, I have 30 minute consults to talk about treatment and I
sneak home care in, but we also do a lot more home care discussion. I
have complimentary recheck visits.
One, because I want to make sure they’re healing well. I want to hear
how they’re doing and then really delve into home care. Like, once I’ve
done this treatment, okay, but like, what are we doing? So I would say I
definitely have more time than general practitioners. However, I do think
that it’s well, I’m not going to brush.
And it’s just sort of like, okay. but we haven’t taught them how to do it.
Like we haven’t given them the steps. And so they’ve tried most owners
and some will say like, I just, I’m too busy or it’s just not going to work.
And I’m like, okay. But most have tried because they hear what you’re
saying and like, we’re going to try.
And then they do it, quote unquote, the wrong way. And then it doesn’t
work. And then they stop. So I do think, letting them off the hook. I
mean, sometimes it’s letting you off the hook. You have like eight other
things to talk about, but I do think if we can as a team really be focused
on what is the best and sometimes you know, like I said, there’s nothing
better than toothbrushing.
The other thing about toothbrushing is there’s no added calories. Obesity
is a big problem. We don’t have to worry about allergic dogs or cats or
things like that. And the cost is Very minimal, right? Some of these
chews can really get up in cost. So not only is it the gold standard for
health wise, but there’s a lot of positives to that.
So I think mentioning that and then also, I’m game to talk about other
things because We’re not perfect. Have I missed days of toothbrushing?
Yes, and like adding other things on can be really helpful You know if
you’re traveling and whoever’s pet sitting can’t, there’s lots of reasons So
I would say that I like to base my home care around daily toothbrushing,
but I’m all for other things However, we have to be very careful about
what we expect out of those.
So a rinse is not going to mechanically debride the plaque. It’s just isn’t
right. It’s not mechanical. So the rinse may decrease. minerals calcifying
onto the plaque to make calculus, but it’s not getting rid of the plaque. So
if you have plaque, you’ll always have calculus. If you’re getting rid of
plaque, you can’t get calculus.
and then like with chews, okay, those are, those are mechanical, but
those are only helpful for teeth used to chew. So their canine teeth, they
don’t chew with. So like, we’re not getting a benefit from the chew on
those teeth. So I think being very, and acknowledging and I will kind of
spell that out of, what are the pros and cons?
Because I see a lot of stuff being like as good as toothbrushing. And
then you read in the font, it’s like as good as brushing twice a week,
which is because calculus develops within 24 hours. So if you’re doing it
every three days, you’ve got two days worth of calculus that you can’t
brush off.
So you’re behind the eight ball. So unfortunately, Pet care is a huge
market. It’s a huge market, right? It’s overwhelming, even for me going
into the pet store and seeing all the things that are like good for their
teeth. And then you see something like antlers, which is like actually
terrible.
It’s going to cause teeth to break just based on physics and anatomy
alone. So it’s hard for pet owners. So I do think, when and if we can find
the space and the time and our appointments, whether it’s us directly or
other veterinary professionals on our team, to at least acknowledge,
because they’re gonna go find those things and be like, yeah, they said
toothbrushing, but I can’t do it.
And this says as good as toothbrushing. So like I’m gonna just swap that
out. So I do think just acknowledging that like, I’m all for rinses and diets
and chews and things like that. They’re just they’re not going to get to
the same point as tooth brushing. So I think if we can supplement use
those things to supplement i’m all for it.
Dr. Andy Roark: Potentially stupid question. When you see, when you
see, when you see dogs that they have dental calculus builds up and
gingivitis on their canines but then you don’t see a lot of calculus or
gingivitis on their premolars, I just kind of assume that that was a weird
thing or a part of their mouth anatomy, something like that.
Are those dogs potentially that are doing some like dental chews or
things like that? And maybe that’s why they’re not getting it this buildup
on premolars, but we’re seeing up on their canines. I guess I hadn’t, I’ve
seen a lot of those dogs where I go, I don’t really see it on the premolars,
but definitely on the canines.
is that an idea that might bear weight? Or is it like, no, Andy, probably,
probably not. That’s probably just, just thumb luck.
Dr. Amy Thomson: No, absolutely. I think that’s the case like I i’ve had
many cases where you know, we look at the front of the mouth and the
incisors and canines are not looking so hot and then I pull back and i’m
like Looking pretty good back here. Looking pretty good because
generally our calculus pattern in our canines and feline patients is the
most is going to be on the maxillary fourth premolar because our salivary
Ducts empty there and so they’re getting the most saliva the most
minerals in those saliva So like all the teeth are pretty evenly going to
get plaque build up and I will tell owners, you know, it’s like when you
wake up and you have that like weird, slimy, fuzzy sweater feeling.
Like we all get that. Like we get it, our pets get it. And then if we don’t
brush that off, it’s actually the minerals in our own saliva that mineralize.
And so we should see naturally more calculus on these maxillary fourth
premolars because they’re the first one to be bathed. And so when I
really dive into it and I’m talking more to owners, it’s the, I do see, and
sometimes it’s not super obvious, but like I had a case last week where I
was like, Things look real good back here, like really good in a small
breed dog, which always I’m like Did you get an anesthesia free
cleaning?
Is there something like that? That’s one of the first things when I don’t
see a lot of calculus in these little guys, but no, this little guy was on a
dental diet, got dental chews, but tooth brushing, they were really
struggling with. And then we worked through like how we can get on top
of that.
And so for now, because we do have some gingivitis, I say like, let’s not
get get in there hardcore in case we cause a little bit irritation and then
it’s painful and then we, Lose traction. So what they’re doing between
our appointment and coming in for a cohat is they’re just going to focus
on like touching teeth lifting lips, just getting more comfortable with the
mouth being handled.
But yeah, I’ve definitely seen that in some, in some patients that are
really doing the dental diets and the chews. And then we’re seeing more
periodontitis up front where those chews aren’t helping because those
teeth aren’t used to chew.
Dr. Andy Roark: that makes sense. It always stands out to me. I see
him fairly regularly. I mean, not not nearly as often as, you know, just
Funk everywhere, but I do see him sometimes where I I, you know, you
start you do that first look and you see the incisors and the canines and
you go, Ooh. And you look in the back and you go, Oh, well, that’s much
better than I thought it would be.
So anyway Amy, you are amazing. Thank you for being here. Where do
you like to send people if they’re looking for resources? I know that you
are actually making a lot of educational resources always for vet
professionals, but also for pet owners. Tell me about that. Tell me where
people can find it.
Dr. Amy Thomson: everything for me started a few years ago on
Instagram, and so I like to do kind of short, fun, try and be entertaining
but if you’re looking for something more got some more grit to it the meat
and potatoes of things, as they say I just relaunched my website, which
I’m really excited about.
It’s a work in progress, but we have both a pet parent side and a
veterinary professional side, and so we’re working on keeping them Like
short and sweet, but like one page handouts of things like
malocclusions, fractured teeth anesthesia free cleanings. That’s been a
big one. The reason we need anesthesia to appropriately clean and and
manage your pet’s oral health.
What is a cohat? So just trying to like support all of you and I’ve asked
Many times on social media what you all are looking for because I know
it’s a lot in that exam room And so you’re touching on these points and
then you know You don’t get the same amount of time to talk to them as
I do So just really trying to to have something like tangible that you can
either kind of print off and give to an owner or you can where you can
send them to that PDF document to get a little bit more information.
We’ve got some pictures in there. I’m very visual learner. So some
pictures in there to just sort of help round out or, supplement the
information that you’re giving your pet parents.
Dr. Andy Roark: Cool. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here,
Amy. Guys, thank you for tuning in and listening. Take care of
yourselves, everybody. We’ll talk to you later.
And that’s it. That’s what I got for you. Thanks for being here. Thanks to
Amy for being here. Gang, if you like this episode, send it to a friend.
Share it with your staff. Let’s get more people. Talking about dentistry in
the exam room. I think it’s just an important thing to do. Again, it’s about
increasing the quality and the quantity of the pets lives that we serve.
I think this is an important part of it. Gang, take care of yourselves. Be
well. I’ll talk to you later on.
