Newly open Petaluma pet dentist wants owners to feel like ‘you’re part of a family’

How many people do you know who can say they’ve touched the canine tooth of a live tiger and lived to tell the tale or had their hand in a bear’s mouth and never suffered a scratch?

Petaluma resident Amy Fulton Scanlan has been face to face with some of the biggest animals, but not in the way you might think. Scanlan is a veterinary dentist and has worked on animal teeth, from the average kitty to a zoo’s big cat, for 13 years.

The pet dentist opened her own practice for household pets in July, bringing her oral hygiene expertise for pets to Petaluma.

“I wanted to be able to have this idea of you walk in the door with your pet and it feels like you’re a part of the family,” Scanlan said. “It’s about being able to step into this idealized sort of environment where you feel comfortable to confide in us and trust us.”

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Scanlan knew she wanted to be a vet when she was young. She received her undergraduate and vet training at Cornell University.

After receiving her degree, she completed an internship at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, where she decided on vet dentistry as a career path.

“Dentistry isn’t a super focused part of the general veterinary curriculum,” Scanlan said. “I realized it combines a lot of things I really enjoy about veterinary medicine so you get to focus on a patient who may be or may not be obviously suffering and within a couple of days to a couple of weeks, cure them or greatly improve their quality of life.”

A visit to Scanlan’s practice starts with a consultation where the vet dentist gets familiar with the patient and its medical history. Scanlan’s team does a health evaluation and discusses any necessary treatments along with ways the owner can improve their pet’s oral health.

Scanlan said the most common issue she sees is periodontal disease, when the tissue that surrounds and supports the teeth becomes infected.

“Ninety percent of dogs and cats have gum disease by the time they’re 5 years old,” Scanlan said. “Broken teeth is definitely number two.”

Dental disease accumulates over time, Scanlan said, with the best prevention being brushing pets’ teeth and being mindful about the toys they play with, avoiding ones that are too abrasive or too hard such as tennis balls or plastic bones. A special diet or dental chews can also keep tartar from building up over time.

“A good rule of thumb is if you can’t press your thumbnail into it or leave a little thumbprint, then it’s probably hard enough to break a tooth,” she said.

Scanlan also volunteers her time at Bay Area zoos. During her residency at the University of California, Davis, she and a group of other student volunteers would perform dental work with which zoo staff were not familiar.

“As part of the residency training, you’re basically exposed to all of these exotic species and you get an idea of how you relate what’s going on in a smaller animal and scale it up to work on a bigger animal,” Scanlan said.

Pet dental work isn’t cheap, mostly due to the process and procedures that go into cleaning a pet’s teeth. A pet owner could spend between $1,800 and $2,200 for a cleaning. Cleanings are also seldom covered by pet insurance.

But Scanlan said every case is different and she and her staff won’t know what kind of care is needed until they conduct a full exam.

“A lot of times, (the pet) will be hiding things under their tongue or in the back of their mouth,” Scanlan said. “When we do a staff cleaning, we’re wearing magnifying glasses and really going around every single area and checking every single pocket.

“I really love being able to talk to people just about general dental health for their pets, even if it’s not something that we need to do a procedure for,” Scanlan said. “I have a lot of knowledge in this field and I want to spread it to as many people as possible.”

You can reach Staff Writer Sara Edwards at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @sedwards380.

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