Just wondered how much you would expect to pay for a scale and polish (small dog) I took one of my girls to the vet yesterday and have been quoted £220.....never had it done before as I use Plaque Off for all of them, but on this girl it just doesn't work.

Are they going to give a general or sedate her.

He said it would be a general...

Expect that is why it is more than you expected - most would have teeth cleaned whilst the dog is under for some other reason as long as that reason is comparable with the use of the tooth cleaning equipment. The fact that it is a small dog may well increase the cost in this case but I am not sure about that, JeanGenie would know.

It's like everything else with vets -it varies between practices. Last year I had a dental on a 3.5 kg Papillon and he ended up having 8 teeth extracted, that cost me about £125.

I expected to pay around £100/120....just thought £220 seemed a lot, the first quote was £287 as vet had added nearly £70 for blood testing which I have declined as I have no concerns at all about her general health.

One of my Large Munsterlanders had to have a back tooth out last year, cost £380 with pain killers and antibiotics was done under GA. She sheared a piece of tooth off eating a knuckle bone. Most expensive bone she has ever had.

She had it done on her 8th Birthday so the insurance paid out less as the excess went up at 8 years.
At first the insurance refused to pay anything, but the vet wrote a letter saying that all of her teeth were in excellent condition and the damage to the tooth was caused by trauma. She had a swelling under her eye which was an abscess caused by an infection getting in.
Took several weeks before the claim was settled, as they were trying to say giving bones was negligence on my part, but it is the best way of keeping the dogs teeth clean. But no more knuckle bones in this house.
I find Logic works well but you do have to use it regularly to stop a tartar build up.
My girl recovered very quickly and I sent a letter from the vets to the KC and I received a permission to show back within a week. As it was a back tooth I don't think most judges would notice anyway, as most just seem to look at the dogs bite. However prior to this incident I did once go under a German judge who counted every one of the dogs teeth, so I always carry the letter from the KC in my show bag when I am showing her.

One of mine went in for a spay and  teeth cleaning...they presented me with a bill for 800 euro...I nearly fainted. her teeth were lovely though..gulp.

Round us we have a clinic who does special offers on certain things.  Always for neutering and that kind of thing but at the moment they have good deals on teeth cleaning.  Think a large dog with them right now is around £100.00.

At least £400 for mine I would estimate.

I've been quoted £350 for a terriers teeth clean.....

Will she not tolerate you using dental forceps to scrape the tartar off, that's what I do with my 3 although it would depend on temperament I suppose

It's dead easy to scrape tartar off the teeth of a large dog, far more difficult difficult on the very small ones. Last year when my oldest Papillon had his dental it was the first time EVER in my entire dog ownership time of taking a dog to the vet for a dental. I've had dogs since 1981. This was my first really small dog (smallest before him were Cavaliers, whose teeth are several times larger) and the teeth are so tiny and get bad so much easier, and no matter how much I scrape, I still can't do it all in the end.

I've never tried to remove it myself, not sure what I'd use, but she is fairly tolerant.

None of my other dogs have had any problems, but they will chew things, this little terrier won't chew anything!

> not sure what I'd use, but she is fairly tolerant.
>
>

I buy my dental equipment from superdrug.  Many will tolerate me scraping with no problems.

I can be a right bozo at times!!

I meant hyperdrug.  This is one, although I have several different shapes.

http://www.hyperdrug.co.uk/Dental-Scaler/productinfo/DENTSCALES/

Thanks JeanW......I'll sort out some chain mail gloves too .....just in case she doesn't like it! :-)

Don't most groomers scale teeth?  Those of my acquaintance do.

You're right Brainless, trained groomers do.  In 20 years, none of my parlour dogs needed a veterinary dental.  That was part of my thinking that a regular 6-8 weeks grooming appointment not only kept the dog's coat in good condition but also saved unnecessary anesthetic and dental treatment.  Having said that, cleaning teeth would be part of the dog's training and so I wouldn't take in a dog that wasn't a regular and try to descale their teeth. :)

It wasn't something that was ever covered at my college I must admit. I have only once been asked to do teeth, and the dog was far too snappy and had clearly never had it's mouth fiddled with so I just had to tell the owner how to do it and advise they get the dog used to it at home. As you say, if the dog isn't used to it, it's not something that they will get used to if it's only done every couple of months.

Teeth cleaning and descaling is covered on the course at the school when I trained and later worked and still is 30 years later. :)  It's even demonstrated not taught on the Taster Day and really isn't that difficult.  I thought that all courses would have taught it too.

This demo is easy to follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGK217YTIYI

Dawn R.

I looked at Vets4pets website and they are doing a free dental check at the moment, so we went along this morning and I have now booked Poppy in for a scale and polish at a cost of £125....it was certainly worth shopping around as that is £100 cheaper than 1st vet.

We have a local discounted spey/vacc clinic that is £104 for a major dental - dogs upto 10kg so definitely worth shopping around