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| Dr Brook Niemiec performs an oral examination on a lion. |
What’s the most common disease seen in
companion animal medicine? To some extent it varies geographically, but time
and again oral and dental disease hit number one on the list. Why is that?
According to Dr Brook Niemiec (pictured
above), Board Certified veterinary dental specialist of the American and
European Veterinary Colleges and Fellow of the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry,
“These conditions create significant pain and infection within the oral cavity, as well as the entire body – but because pets rarely show outward signs of disease, treatment is often delayed or not performed at all.”
One
of the challenges of veterinary dentistry is that it is a relatively recent
field. Yes, animals have always had teeth, but “in addition to the problem of a lack of
perceived pain, dental education in the veterinary curriculum is limited and it is
a subject clouded by myths and misinformation,” said to Dr Niemiec.
The
number of specialist veterinary dental services available has exploded, as has
the use of veterinary dental radiographs (it still stuns me to think that when I graduated it was not routine to use these, and we're talking mid 2000s, not the 1800s).
Dr
Niemiec is chairing the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s (WSAVA) Dental
Guidelines Committee. WSAVAs working groups have already compiled Guidelines on
vaccines, nutrition and pain management which can be accessed here.
The
Global Dental Guidelines are set to be released at the WSAVA World Congress in
2017.
According
to Dr Niemiec, the guidelines “will set the ‘gold standard’ to which all
veterinarians should aspire - but
we will also suggest minimum
standards of equipment and care for veterinarians
in parts of the world where companion animal practice is still developing. As
part of the project, we plan to develop a simple, objective way to score oral
disease in a repeatable fashion and to create educational
resources, tools and continuing education (CE) for WSAVA members.”
As
the owner of a now toothless Maltese who had terrible periodontal disease when
I adopted him, this is a much needed initiative and I await the results
eagerly. (You can read about Phil’s veterinary adventures here)
(And while I did some of the work, Dr Christine Hawke, of Sydney Pet Dentistry,
helped improve Phil’s quality of life significantly with her skills and advice).
One of the things I've observed through my career is an increase in the sensitivity of both owners and veterinarians to dental disease. We now have people presenting animals because they have bad breath, or because they have noticed gum recession, or because they're chewing on one side of the mouth. Veterinarians are more proactive in recommending treatment. I think we're saving a lot of teeth that would have been doomed were it not for early intervention. In part we have some very proactive veterinary dentists to thank for raising awareness - but there are still plenty of animals that put up with oral pain and discomfort for too long.
Members
of the committee have more letters than alphabet soup, and are: Brook A. Niemiec DVM, DAVDC, DEVDC, FAVD, Jerzy Gawor, DVM, DAVDC, DEVDC, FAVD, Marco Gioso, DVM, DAVDC, Australia’s own David
Clarke, DVM, DAVDC, Cedric Tutt,
DVM, DEVDC, Ana Nemec, DVM,
DAVDC, DEVDC, Gottfried Morgenegg,
DVM, Marge Chandler, DVM, MS, MANZCVSc,
DACVN, DACVIM, DECVIM-CA, MRCVS, Paulo Steagall, MV, MS, PhD, DACVAA and Rod
Jouppi DVM.
