Choosing a vet for a first time dental, regular vet or board certified?

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Riyah

Riyah

Member Since 2023
Hi all!

Haven't posted in a bit but Lily's numbers have stayed pretty stable without insulin since 11/19/23. She did have a little blip where I got a reading of 137 from her, but I'm wondering if she's got some sort of chicken allergy. She hasn't had chicken since and the numbers have stayed in the 80s whenever I've tested.

Anyways, the vet who diagnosed Lily with diabetes 11/2/23 mentioned that she could use a dental and some extractions. This was his actually his first time seeing her, as I'd been wanting to switch vets for a while. And this place is cat only. He's seen her two times since and said we could think about scheduling the dental once her numbers stay in the remission area for a solid amount of time.

Lily has never had a dental or been under anesthesia since she was spayed. She's also never had her teeth brushed unfortunately (she was pretty much an outdoor cat until the pandemic). All that to say, I'm extremely anxious about the procedure and want it to go as smoothly as possible. With her last bloodwork, that I posted about here, she might have some kidney problems as well, so that might be a concern for anesthesia. The numbers are on the upper limits of normal.

I've read that some people really recommend going with a board certified dentist so I looked into that and there's just one about 40 minutes away. There's also one pet dental clinic but the vet that runs it isn't board certified, according to their website he is a 'dental focused' vet and has done research in feline dental health at some point.

How would you all go about choosing? Did you go to your regular vet or did you use a board certified dentist? On the one hand, I like our vet we've been seeing, and he does say he has an interest in dentistry. He's also familiar with her diabetes history and recent bloodwork. However, since she's never had a dental, I'm not sure if it makes more sense to go to someone that's specifically knowledgable in all things teeth.

I guess my options are 1. Our regular (but fairly new to us) vet at a cat only clinic 2. Board certified dentist 3. Pet dental clinic but not board certified.

All three options have pretty good reviews, with the occasional negative ones, which of course worry me! I haven't been able to find any information about dentals done at our new vet but I know they do them.

Bonus question too, if anyone has questions they'd ask when scheduling a dental, please let me know! I was thinking about asking about the anesthesia, how long she'd be monitored, if we would need updated bloodwork, what painkillers would be prescribed after, but I'm not sure if I'm missing anything.

Thanks in advance!
 
I have been using a cat only vet for a long time and in two different cities. Where I'm currently located, there's a rather well respected vet school. I've used my cat only vet for all of my cats -- diabetic and non-diabetic -- dental work. None of the cats had any out of the ordinary dental problems other than some reabsorptive lesions that required extractions.
 
With Neko, I used a board certified dental specialist. She was "complicated" with acromegaly causing the diabetes, as well as CKD and HCM. She had her first dental with her regular vet, but it was just a cleaning. I wanted the comfort of a dental specialist when she became complicated because that also meant extra monitoring. Plus dental vets are used to doing dentals on older more complicated animals. As it turns out, what my regular vet thought was an infected tooth that needed to come out, the specialist discovered was actually gum growth due to the acromegaly and he managed to save the tooth. For other non diabetic cats, I have had them done by regular vets that specialized in older cats.
 
Thank you both. As part of her recent bloodwork, they added on the Cardiopet ProBNP test which came back as 76 with a normal range of <100. Did you all have any extra tests done prior to the dentals, aside from a standard prep bloodwork panel? I guess my main worry is that some complication could arise with the anesthesia that could've been caught prior. Lily seems like she could be a little uncomfortable at times but I can't pinpoint the cause, maybe it is teeth discomfort? She's also been diagnosed with very mild asthma at the moment but vets have never been too concerned since her asthma attacks are really infrequent. I think the last time I saw her have one was the beginning of her diabetes diagnosis, so 11/1/2023.
 
Other than the standard bloodwork, the dental vet wanted to know the current state of Neko's heart. But she'd been diagnosed with HCM at that point and was having periodic echocardiograms so they just got in touch with her cardio vet.
 
When J.D. was 12, I kept asking my regular vet if we should do a dental and he kept saying it wasn't time, because he was so unregulated diabetes wise. When he was 14, my vet finally said okay and did the dental and he had 8 teeth taken out.
When J.D. was 18, he had some kidney disease, so I took him to a veternary dental specialist (board certified, (I was lucky to find) Dr. James Anthony). I scheduled him for an appointment with the cardiologist at 8:30am, and then another appointment with the dedicated anestiaologist at 9:00am (to go over his kidney disease), and then an appointment with the dentist at 9:30am. It cost a bunch, but I was comfortable knowing he was in the best of hands. He had another 8 teeth removed when he was 18, including a broken off canine that he had had for a few years.
 
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