The premolars are more structural teeth designed for holding and cutting foods into smaller pieces. Dogs have four upper and lower on each side whilst cats have three upper and two lower. Molars are the grinding teeth within the mouth and have a more flattened surface.
Dogs have two upper and three lower whilst our cats have just one upper and lower on each side. The differences in tooth numbers and size within our cats and dogs reflects the fact that cats are obligate carnivores meaning they must have an animal flesh based diet. Dogs on the other hand are omnivores and can survive on a combination of plants and flesh. The early stage of periodontal disease is characterized by halitosis and gingivitis.
This early stage of periodontal disease, gingivitis, is one of the few oral disease conditions where we can perform treatment and return things to a good state of health. Especially in cats, we need to look for this at an early age.
It is not uncommon to see cats at 6 or 8 months of age with significant oral inflammation, the so-called juvenile-onset gingivitis. If left untreated, by the age of 12 months this may quickly progress to irreversible periodontitis. Treatment recommendations for cats with early stage periodontal disease include frequent professional prophylaxis, and daily homecare.
Once periodontal disease has progressed into the more advanced stages, periodontitis, the treatment plan is geared more toward damage control than prevention. The loss of periodontal tissue gingival, bone, periodontal ligament that occurs with periodontitis is, in most cases, irreversible.
In cats, advanced periodontal disease can quickly progress to a point where extraction is the only valid treatment option remaining. If the goal is to save teeth, aggressive treatment combined with daily homecare is required. If advanced periodontal treatment flap surgery, etc. The presence of FORLs will doom your periodontal treatment to failure.
Clinically, there are very few cases where advanced periodontal surgery is warranted in felines. These select cases usually involve the canine teeth that have relatively longer roots. Because the roots of the incisors, premolars and molars rarely exceed mm. Figure 3 There is a fine line between prophylaxis and exodontia in the cat. Tooth fracture occurs most commonly in cats following trauma. When a tooth has been broken, the pulp chamber is often exposed to the oral environment.
The pulp exposure can be visualized on oral examination as a pink vital pulp or black necrosed pulp spot at the site of exposure. Any time a pulp cavity is exposed, it must be treated. Exposed pulp is painful to the animal and can lead to periapical osseous bone infection. There are two treatment options whenever an exposed pulp is encountered.
The first is to extract the tooth; extraction fulfills the treatment goals of preventing pain and infection, as long as no broken roots are left behind. A second option is the save the tooth by performing endodontic therapy root canal if an intraoral radiograph shows the tooth to be treatable. Teeth with evidence of resorptive lesions are not candidates for endodontic therapy and should be extracted.
Feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions also known as neck lesions, cervical line erosions, and cat cavities are the most common dental problem in cats.
Feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions FORL are painful. Clinical signs associated with FORL include anorexia, drooling, refusal to eat the hard portions of the diet, and overall malaise. Post-operative discomfort can be reduced with proper pain relief during the actual procedure, but for more extensive tooth removal procedures, it may be necessary to undergo pain relief for a few days after the procedure.
Essentially, your cat should go back to the veterinarian for a checkup roughly two to three days after the tooth removal procedure. It is at this stage that the cat will be checked to ensure that his or her gums are healing, there is no present infection, and that he or she is comfortable and in no pain.
If there any complications have arisen since the procedure, the appropriate measures can be taken. Your cat will have another checkup again in about a week, and if all is well, then your cat will sent on his or her way. It takes a lot of experience and time to perform dental surgery on cats. Therefore, in a way, the cost of cat tooth removal reflects the amount of time necessary to perform the procedure, as a single cat tooth can take anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes to successfully remove.
Then, when you add in the costs of general anesthetic and intravenous fluids, you can see the costs starting to climb. You can reach about four figures if your cat needs complex orthodontics.
If you have any questions or concerns, you should always visit or call your veterinarian — they are your best resource to ensure the health and well-being of your pets. Also check out, Dr. Ernie's Top 10 Dog Dental Questions When do cats get their baby and adult teeth?
This is particularly helpful when faced with a stray kitten. The teeth immediately behind the canines, the premolars, quickly follow the front teeth. This typically occurs when the kittens are around five to six weeks old. The permanent teeth erupt around 11 to 16 weeks of age, beginning with the incisors followed by the canines at 12 to 20 weeks. The premolars are in place by 16 to 20 weeks of age.
The difficult-to-see, way-in-the-back molars emerge around 20 to 24 weeks. Do cats get cavities? When cavities occur, they can be painful and require similar repair procedures as humans with cavities, or, dental caries. Why are cat bites so bad and likely to get infected? Designed similar to hypodermic needles, these teeth excel at penetrating flesh intensely, damaging underlying structures such as arteries and veins.
In addition, like that needle, they carry pathogenic bacteria deep inside the body. As the tooth is withdrawn, the narrow puncture wound closes onto itself, trapping behind infection that later becomes an abscess. I have a friend whose wife was recently bitten by a stray cat they were attempting to rescue.
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