Читать книгу The Veterinary Dental Patient: A Multidisciplinary Approach - Группа авторов - Страница 10

Preface

Being doctors, we do not treat diseases: we treat patients. Our patients' quality of life, functionality, and welfare are the most important goals of treatment.

Controlling periodontal disease is a complex action that requires the joint efforts of several people, including the first‐contact vet, the dentist, and the nurse.

Oral injuries and tooth fractures always require general anesthesia, in order to save the patient stress and provide the opportunity for appropriate assessment and treatment. It is again a team effort to carry the patient through all procedures safely.

Oral problems can affect almost all veterinary patients. Over 10% will become emergency patients and require immediate action.

Dentistry is a very important and interesting subject, but regardless of the technique, instrumentation, skills, and materials, it is all about the patient.

Many oral pathologies are camouflaged or go undiagnosed due to patient behaviors (animals do not express their discomfort), limitations in good access to the oral cavity, and prejudices among veterinarians and pet owners. Therefore, it is very important to educate veterinarians and urge them to pay attention not only to obvious signalments but also to signs of coming problems.

Almost every veterinary practice will claim, “We Do Dentistry” or “We Descale Teeth”, but the overall quality of service is poor. Students lack dental education, and as graduates and young veterinarians they go on to neglect dentistry. More is needed than just a book, but we can at least point out herein what we expect from universities.

Pet owners accept the presence of human dentistry as a separate medical discipline, but for some reason they treat veterinary dentistry as a cosmetic addendum to veterinary services.

There is one thing worse than neglecting dental problems: performing poor dentistry. Thus the aim of this book is thus to present the standards of good dentistry in the most common applications. We hope to remind you that every patient is a dental patient, and to offer advice on how to properly manage them. You should maintain an appropriate attitude toward dental and oral problems in dogs and cats. We offer an interdisciplinary approach to the dental patient, providing perspectives from such disciplines as oncology, cardiology, anesthesiology, and radiology.

In order for our profession to continue to improve in protecting and improving the oral and general health of our patients, I believe two things are required. First, clinicians in general practice need to ensure that they have adequate training and are suitably equipped with dental diagnostic tools, from periodontal probes to X‐ray machines. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the curriculum in our veterinary undergraduate programs needs to include practical training in dental and oral diagnostics.

My professional experiences are different from those of most specialists. Over 60% of the dental patients I see come from education, promotion, and prophylaxis. The remainder come through referral. My perspective is thus non‐academic; I deal with patients at all different levels every day. I hope I may be of help to those in developing countries as well as to graduates and professionals in the developed world.

Jerzy Gawor