What was a routine dental cleaning for Zoe, turned into seven teeth being removed.
Zoe went through the typical procedure for a professional dental cleaning. Zoe was put under general anesthesia, her teeth were cleaned and polished, and then x-rays of her mouth were taken. There was one suspicious tooth, however the rest of her mouth looked fairly normal.
The x-rays revealed what the doctor couldn’t see. The roots of Zoe’s teeth were disappearing and small lesions could be seen on the ones that still had roots. Dr. Amy Hinze had to surgically remove the couple of teeth that still
had most of their roots. She was able to remove the teeth without roots with a non-surgical method. Zoe had Feline Tooth Resorption.
Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions, or simply Tooth Resorption, is where lesions appear on the roots of a cat’s tooth and begins to slowly eat away at them. This can be extremely painful for your kitty because of all the nerve endings in the roots of adult teeth. Unfortunately, this is a fairly common occurrence in cats.
Cats are very good at hiding pain, they will also continue eating despite it. Also, because the lesions grow on the root, nothing will be noticeable until reaching extreme conditions. This is why it is very important to have your pet receive routine anesthesia cleanings and examinations. Without the x-rays, Zoe’s condition would never had been caught, even though several of her roots had disappeared.
Please make sure to schedule your routine dental for your cat to keep them living a happy and healthy life.
