I've heard some vets offer anesthesia-free dental. Is that true?

Some vets indeed offer this. It's more commonly seen at grooming facilities or things like that. The veterinary dentist, in general, believes that this is not a great idea. Some of the reasons include what I talked about before in that we have sharp instruments in the dog's mouth, so there are some safety concerns there. But also, when you don't have a dog that's not anesthetized, you can't evaluate under the gum line. You can't monitor the roots or check for gum health, or things like that. By just cracking that tartar off or scraping it off, you're also damaging the enamel. Without polishing out those scratches and scrapes, we can damage the enamel over time and cause more problems.

Well, there may be anesthesia-free tartar cracking, but it's sure not a dental cleaning. Whenever you do a dental cleaning on a pet, you must get under the gum line, and no dog will allow you to clean under the gum line without sedation. The other thing is, if you're just cracking the tartar off with the instruments to crack the tartar, you're putting grooves in the enamel, which makes it easier for more tartar to build up. The dog doesn’t just need the cleaning, but they need the polishing and the fluoride treatment as well. So, no, there's no such thing as an anesthesia-free dental cleaning. And our accreditation from AHA requires that we use anesthesia.

This is true. I'll be honest; it's a terrible idea because, with dogs, more than 80% of dental diseases will be under the gumline where you can't see it. I've even had cases, I've had my own dog who had a normal-appearing tooth on the outside, and once we got up under the gumline and we could take those x-rays, we realized there was disease under the gumline that necessitated that tooth being extracted. So it's really important for them to be under anesthesia so that we can get a complete exam and do a complete cleaning because, again, most of the diseases come up under that gumline.

Yes, it's true, but anesthesia-free dental cleanings are not recommended by the American Veterinary Dental Academy or the AHA. Anesthesia-free procedures can be risky as there's nothing protecting the dog's airway from water used during the cleaning process. Moreover, it's not possible to perform thorough dental care, such as addressing advanced periodontal disease or extracting teeth, without general anesthesia.

While anesthesia-free dental procedures do exist, they are generally discouraged because they can be stressful and potentially harmful to your pet. These procedures may involve oral sedation or no sedation at all, and your pet is physically restrained while their teeth are scraped. Anesthesia-free procedures do not allow for a thorough examination of the teeth or detection of issues beneath the gum line, so they do not effectively address most dental problems in pets.