Tooth Be Told: Part One
How I Got to Fall in Love with Dentistry
I am different from most veterinarians I have met in my career. I love veterinary dentistry.
This has not always been the case. Like many of my fellow animal health care enthusiasts, I started out with little to no education on oral health, dental disease assessment and treatment. Armed with negligible and primarily theoretical knowledge, I went out to help pets in need and soon faced my first ‘dental’. Later I will talk about why this expression is meaningless despite still being commonly used in the profession, but for now, let’s accept it as a descriptive word for treating mouth and tooth-related problems in animals. It was a very long time ago, so naturally, I cannot remember what needed to be done, but I am sure that I was stressed and had no real clue what to do and probably didn’t get much support from my more senior colleagues. In the following 17 years, I tried my best to avoid ‘dentals’ and when I could not dodge the bullet, I did my best not to cause too much damage and pain to my patients. At the same time, I gradually developed a loathing for anything tooth-related. I am not sure why I chose this path instead of learning more about the subject to get better at it but I suspect the lack of an inspirational environment was a significant factor, especially considering what transpired later.
I promised to talk about why ‘dental’ is a meaningless word to describe what we do when we assess and treat oral ill health. The term ‘dental’ is an adjective. As such it is a word naming an attribute of a noun. Thus saying something like ‘I am doing a dental’ or ‘This dog needs a dental’ is like saying ‘I am eating a red’ instead of ‘I am eating a red apple’. At the very least, we should say ‘dental treatment’ or ‘dental procedure’. However, if we want to be precise, the phrase that we should be using is ‘comprehensive oral health assessment and treatment’ or ‘COHAT’ in short. This expression describes the process the best and helps pet parents understand why we need to do more than just look into the animal’s mouth to be able to diagnose and remedy any problems.
In April 2017, I started my new job in a small Scottish town called Linlithgow. It was an independent veterinary practice led by Dr McMorrow, who was incredibly passionate about dentistry. Unlike many small animal clinics, his practice had a digital dental X-ray machine, which allowed more in-depth assessment and better treatment of tooth problems. His devotion to dentistry was contagious and because he was a keen educator as well, I soon felt the detestation transforming into curiosity first and then love for the field at the end. Under his guidance, I learnt that the most important ingredient to successful and enjoyable dental procedures was patience. He kept saying that one could not rush a tooth extraction. He taught me the basics of dental radiography as well, an area that can be counterintuitive at first. I only stayed in Linlithgow for 6 months and my departure was not very amicable, but maybe the universe will bring this blog his way and thus I can express my gratitude for everything he acquainted me about dentistry.
I carried this budding love for doctoring teeth with me to the present day and through further education I added to my knowledge and skills to get even better at it. I also try to follow in the footsteps of Stuart by spreading my fondness for dentistry amongst my colleagues who still think that I am strange for finding joy in digging around in pets’ mouths and I hope I make him proud.
