How often do your dogs have their teeth cleaned at the vets?

[Giselle]

Giselle came to me with already bad teeth and receding gums. Once periodontitis begins, it's only a matter of management, so she gets her teeth cleaned every once in a while.

It's very expensive. Around $400-500, if I recall correctly.

[Spiritwind]

I've never actually had any of my dogs get dentals done, however I scale their teeth pretty frequently. They are very good about it, I just lay them down on the ground a put their heads in my lap and scale the tarter off.

Collies tend to have pretty bad teeth.... and as long as I keep them scaled every few months - I have had 6-9 month old puppies with tarter build up on their back molars - as long as I scale them ever few months and/or give them knuckle bones to gnaw on they tend to be ok..

However, Ben, my 7yr old smooth collie male who lives in Ohio with my mom is having a dental done on March 20th. I was up to visit them after Christmas and was planning on scaling his teeth while I was up there, however they were to bad to work on.. he needed a full dental.. so its finally being done.

The estimate I got from my vet in ohio who is doing the dental is ~ $256. This includes everything - pre op bloodwork, IV cath., the anasethic, antibiotics if needed etc... I am HOPING no teeth will need to be removed, but we shall see... he has one incisor that might need yanked out, but other than that I THINK the others should be ok... HOPEFULLY! This will also be the first time he has ever been under any kind of anasethic so I'm kinda worried about it, but i'm sure he'll be fine.....