HOUND'S-TOOTH CHECK
By Greg Bump
Post-Crescent staff writer
Photographs by Tim Greenway

The dentist prepares the instruments as Abby Jaeckle lies motionless on the table. She has the beginnings of a cavity on her right lower canine that will be filled today in the hope of preventing the spread of bacteria.

Abby, under anesthesia, doesn't react as the doctor bonds the filling material with full-spectrum light.

By the time she wakes, she'll have a shiny, smooth new tooth that's as good as new.

Of course, it isn't typical for a dentist to anesthetize a patient for a simple filling, but Abby isn't a typical patient.

DR. CLINT DUNATHAN, A Hortonville dentist, uses a high-speed hand-piece to remove decay from a Golden Retriever's tooth.  At left, Dunathan employs a full spectrum light to bond filling material to a tooth.

Abby is a one-year-old Golden Retriever.

Clint Dunathan, a Hortonville dentist, has been looking after the dental well-being of our furry friends in conjunction with the Heritage Animal Hospital for the past dozen years.

A native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Dunathan began his practice in 1984. It was a couple of years later when he heard from the late Greg Miller, an owner at the time of Heritage Animal Hospital.

"Do you ever fill cavities on dogs?" inquired Miller.

"I never have, but I'm willing to try," was Dunathan's reply.

Soon after, Miller bought a dog to Dunathan's office.  He worked on the pooch in the same dental chair which he treated his human patients.

"There weren't a lot of people doing this.  I think we were kind of winging it then," Dunathan said.

Since then, Dunathan has completed more than 100 dental procedures on pets, from cleanings to root canals.

Amazingly, only two dogs have come back with loose or lost fillings over that time.

He does the procedures at Heritage now.  Although the mouths may look different than the ones he treats at his own clinic, Dunathan said the idea is the same.

"The same techniques we use in people are readily available in animals," Dunathan said. "Dr. (Dan) Oberschlake (Heritage Animal Hospital Owner) is really to be commended.  Heritage is a real forward-thinking clinic to try this."

He said treating animals provides him with some unique challenges.

"The dog can't tell you what's going on. Basically, you're treating symptoms."

The strangest procedure he has done has been gum surgery on a client's pet squirrel monkey.

"It was wild.  Its head was the size of a walnut," he said.

For Dunathan and Oberschlake, the goal is to keep the cost of a filling or root canal competitive with the cost of an extraction, which has traditionally been the way tooth decay is handled in pets.

As with humans, Dunathan is interested in helping his canine and feline patients to keep their teeth as long as they can.

"It used to be when a dog's teeth fell out it was no big deal. I give today's pet owners credit for being open minded enough to try these things," Dunathan said.

With better nutrition and health care, pets are living longer than ever before.

"I look at it as a natural growth of an area that not much attention has been paid to, but has become more important as the longevity of pets increases," he said.

"We used to euthanize a lot of dogs just because they had a bad mouth," said Oberschlake, who estimated that 98 percent of animals will develop dental disease over their lifetime.

"Back when I was in vet school they told us dogs didn't get cavities," Oberschlake said.

The doctors also stress regular care and owners taking preventive measures to keep pets' teeth healthy.

Oberschlake recommends annual physical exams, which include teeth and gum examinations, and that older dogs especially have their teeth cleaned every six to nine months.

"It's a lot easier to fix a small hole in the road than to fix a moon-sized crater," Dunathan said.

Brushing is also recommended.

"A lot of owners don't want to do it, but the ones that do save a lot on veterinarian bills and prevent more serious disease in the long run," Oberschlake said.

Dunathan said it's much easier now for pets to have good oral hygiene.

"When I first started there weren't toothbrushes or toothpaste for dogs and cats."

Raised awareness in the oral care of pets correlates to a similar movement in people's own consciousness of their dental care," Dunathan said.

"Generally, people have become more educated to the benefits of dentistry.  That has culminated in people realizing that if it works for Jimmy, it will work for Fido."

Dunathan said it is rewarding to work closely with his medical brethren in the veterinary field.

"When we get together, good things can happen," Dunathan said. "Whether it be medical doctors with dentists or dentists with veterinarians, as long as we keep that dissemination of information going, it's a very good thing.  Ultimately, the goal is to continue raising the level of care so pets and humans receive better care."