Why does my cat need anesthesia for teeth cleaning?

It’s a reasonable question because you and I can open up and say, “Ahhh,” and let the dentist clean our teeth. Cats can’t do that. We have to have the mouth open to get a dental x-ray plate in the mouth to shoot the x-rays. We have to be able to clean under the gum line. The cat has to be sedated to truly do a good dental cleaning.

We can do imaging under anesthesia. So we can't do internal x-rays or 3-D imaging without anesthesia. And imaging looks at two-thirds of the tooth that is below the gum line you can't see when they're awake. 80% of the cats have problems when you look at that stat. If you don't look underneath the gum line, you'll be missing two-thirds of each tooth, then potentially missing common problems.

When we do teeth cleaning, we use a lot of water and a dental x-ray unit, so we need your pet to be very still during its cleaning so that we can do a thorough assessment. So that means general anesthesia is needed.

I'm certain that all of you who are looking at this video have had your teeth cleaned at the dentist's. The reason for that is that a cat just won't allow us to put that piezoelectric dental scaler or a polisher with a grid on it to polish his teeth in his mouth. So that's why general anesthesia is required.

Anesthesia is necessary for cat dental procedures because it allows the veterinarian to perform potentially painful actions, use water for cleaning and polishing without the risk of the cat inhaling it, and take full x-rays of the cat's mouth. If extractions are required, full anesthesia is especially important.

Cats have very sharp teeth, and unlike humans when we're in for our dental cleanings and we keep our mouth open, cats don't know to say ah and they are not as willing and able to let us get into their mouth.