Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.
PRACTICAL DENTISTRY
PEER REVIEWED
Proper Therapy for Endodontic Disease Brook A. Niemiec, DVM, FAVD, Diplomate AVDC
This is the third article in a series on how to provide optimum dental care as well as increase dental compliance in veterinary practice. As such, it will present very common oral problems and their proper therapy. You can read the first two articles in
the series, Dental Services: Good Medicine for Patients & Practices (September/October 2011) and The Importance of Dental Radiology (November/December 2011), at todaysveterinarypractice.com.
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everal of the endodontic conditions discussed in this article may be well known to readers, but since veterinary dental education is quite
variable, even these common conditions will be pre- sented. Some of the pathologies presented are more subtle and warrant careful consideration, as they are no less painful or damaging than more obvious condi- tions, and should be afforded the same level of respect as classic endodontic disease. The consequences and treatments of many of these diseases are largely misun- derstood by the general veterinary profession. Beyond the information presented on diagnosis and
care, this article will convey the deeper impact of spe- cific dental pathologies in a way that allows you to communicate the significance of the conditions to your clients. This communication should help you increase the number of patients receiving dental prophylaxis and treatment per your recommendations, presenting an opportunity to improve the patient's health as well as the practice's financial health.
TOOTH ANATOMY The crown of the tooth is made up of 3 layers
(Figure 1):1,2 UÊPulp Chamber: The innermost layer is the pulp chamber (or root canal), which is comprised of
40 Today's Veterinary Practice January/February 2012 Figure 1. Anatomy of a single-root tooth
UÊEnamel: The outermost layer is the enamel, which is 96% inorganic material. Enamel has no sensory ability and no ability to regenerate if damaged or lost.
blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue.