As described in a recent post, dental conditions are often hidden and painful. The following posts are going to help describe conditions that pets can get as well as treatment. Many people I talk with are surprised how we can help pets with dental conditions and save teeth whenever possible.
As mentioned in the previous post, tooth resorption is common in cats. Cats with stomatitis concurrently have tooth resorption and/or periodontal disease.
Should the inflamed ulcerated tissues NOT extend to the caudal aspect of the mouth (shown below), extractions in periodontally compromised and tooth resorption teeth should be performed.
Some cases of caudal mouth inflammation are mild:
All cases of caudal mouth inflammation require full mouth extractions (FME) including all retained roots. If the canines and incisors are unaffected, they may be retained, but every tooth and retained root behind the canines needs to be extracted. This is known as caudal mouth extractions (CME). Many patients with full/caudal mouth extractions benefit from a few days of feeding through a tube as the mouth heals. While all of these extractions sound radical, they are necessary. Patients without extractions such as this do not resolve, as this is a condition with an underlying immune system issue. Approximately 70% of cats with FME or CME respond well with either complete resolution (1/2) or significant improvement (1/2) still requiring adjunctive medical management. Sadly ~1/3 of stomatitis patients do not respond well to any therapy. There may be a better outcome when extractions as first line treatment occur earlier in the course of disease. Contact us to learn more about tooth resorption and stomatitis.