Has anyone had any experience with this? He already had to have 9 pulled right after I got him, and he recovered well, but he can still eat hard food. We're going to see a dental specialist for a consultation so I'll probably get a lot more answers then, just wondered if anyone had any insight or similar stories.
Oh gosh, yes! Not with a dog but a cat ... same thing, chronic stomatitis as an auto-immune disorder. She was tested for everything imaginable ...FIV, FLV, diabetes, adrenal and kidney disease, bacterial cultures, etc., etc. All negative and no underlying cause or contributing factor was ever found.
We tried the multiple dental cleanings by the vet and home maintenance with twice-daily tooth brushings and clorhexidine spray. But in her case it wasn't plaque she was reacting to ... turned out her body was actually rejecting the very tooth structures themselves. We tried the more conservative approach for the same reason you're talking about ... initially we were uncomfortable with the idea of full-mouth extractions.
Even if it is plaque though, doubtful tooth-brushings and clorhexidine will work long-term ... and this is
not a problem that can be solved by feeding raw bones either. It's because if they are reacting to plaque then even if the very tiniest plaque spot goes unchecked it starts the whole inflammatory process all over again ... and brushings and raw bones can't reach plaque under the gum line.
The ONLY thing that resolved it for our cat was full-mouth extractions. She recovered fully and was still able to eat hard foods ... and crunch too!! So sorry you're going through this ... chronic stomatitis is extremely painful for the animal.
Also a frustrating problem for owners and yes, it's terribly expensive to treat. When all was said and done, Peanut ended up being the $2700 stray cat! But there was nothing else to do ... gotta take care of them.
EDIT: Just another thought ... but make sure they do multiple radiographs during the procedure to be sure they get all the tooth structure out ... root tips are easy to miss. Also that they put the dog on antibiotics as preventative after surgery ... for at least 21 days. Not good to wait and see if an after-surgery infection develops before starting antibiotics because oral surgery after stomatitis has danger of going into osteomylitis ... bone infection ... you don't want to deal with that.
Your vet most likely
will do all this anyway ... just letting you know what to expect & ask about. Again, sorry your poor baby's going through this.
