Veterinary Dentistry Specialists Chadds Ford

Meet VDS Patient - Boo Radley. This sweet boy is a new patient and received a dental cleaning and advanced dental care. We wish Boo Radley and all of our pet patients a Happy, Safe & Furry Halloween!

VDS Chadds Ford is pleased to welcome Stacey Reiling, CVT, VTS (Anesthesia/Analgesia), CVPP. With 20 years of anesthesia experience, Stacey provides the highest level of nursing care for our anesthetic patients. Driven by a strong desire to continually learn and apply her clinical knowledge, Stacey loves challenging anesthesia cases. Welcome to VDS Chadds Ford!

We recently had an opportunity to remove Yukon’s dental pain by performing root canal therapy on a broken fang. Dr. Goodman and her staff do a great job helping the animals at Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, PA!

VDS Chadds Ford welcomes Alayna Buccella as the newest member of our talented team! As Manager of Client Communication, Alayna will continue to enhance the "concierge care" experience for pet owners and keep our referring doctors updated on the status of their patients. We feel very lucky to have Alayna join our team!

We sure do have some of the cutest patients! Charlotte is a 16-week-old pup who came to us from New Life Animal Rescue (https://www.facebook.com/NewLifeAnimalRescue) for repair of a cleft hard and soft palate. It takes a team. Many thanks to our talented staff @VDSChaddsFord and to our anesthesiologist, Dr. Dooley, for caring for our patients as we tackle these complex surgeries. Also, thanks to Kim and New Life Animal Rescue for all the great work they do for the animals!

We recently had an opportunity to help a great dog and his wonderful owners by utilizing state-of-the-art-technology. "Bocce" is an adorable 6-month-old goldendoodle who was presented with difficulty breathing while sleeping, with symptoms similar to sleep apnea. Bocce's primary care veterinarian, Dr. Larry Hirshenson from Morris Hills Veterinary Clinic, took skull radiographs and he and his radiologist suspected an odontogenic cyst or odontogenic tumor. Bocce travelled from ...Northern New Jersey to have Dr. Lewis and his team perform a cone-beam CT (CBCT) scan and then immediate surgery as dictated by CBCT findings. Attached are some 3D images from the CBCT. Bocce had a rapidly growing dentigerous cyst which formed due to lack of eruption of the right upper canine tooth. The canine tooth was unable to erupt due to a benign tooth-like accumulation of hard tissue called an odontoma. Dr. Lewis raised up the gums and mucosa of the right upper jaw, made a window in the bone to remove the odontoma, the canine tooth, and hopefully all the cystic lining. As you could imagine, Bocce lost quite a bit of blood during the surgery, and his anesthesiologist, Dr. Bryce Dooley, did a great job keeping Bocce's pressures up while Dr. Lewis worked on the cyst removal. We saw Bocce for his two-week recheck today, and we are happy to report he is doing great and sleeping without any breathing problems! We will need to continue to monitor for any recurrence of the cyst, but so far, so good!

Have a happy and safe 4th of July with your beloved pets.

Many thanks to Lynn Luft, Chair of the Pennsbury Township Historical Commission, for the nice writeup in Pennsbury Township News about the historic building that houses Veterinary Dentistry Specialists!

Happy Father's Day to all dads - those of two- and four-legged children. Thanks for your love and support throughout the years.

A root canal procedure to save a dog's tooth? Absolutely! It makes perfect sense when you think about how large the roots are of some of the teeth of dogs and cats, and how much oral surgery it takes to remove a broken or endodontically diseased tooth. Although dogs and cats adapt quite well when losing a tooth or multiple teeth, there are certain teeth that are more functionally important than others. Although we perform root canal procedures on police dogs and working dogs..., many of the root canal procedures are performed on pets whose owners are seeking a more elegant way to deal with a broken tooth. How do dogs break their teeth? The most common cause is from chewing on a hard object, such as bones (real and nylon), antlers, cow hooves, bully sticks, and ice cubes. Yami, a star on the agility circuit, recently fractured his left upper fourth premolar (carnassial) tooth. His owner wanted to try to save the tooth to maintain function while removing potential for pain and infection. Attached are pictures of Yami's broken tooth, files used to clean out the canals, post-op dental radiograph, and final restoration of the tooth. In some cases, we even place a crown over the tooth, but this requires at least one additional anesthetic visit to cement the crown after it returns from the dental laboratory. Yami was such a well behaved patient! We wish him the best of luck in his future agility endeavors! (Action photo copyright M. Nicole Fischer)

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of a trusted member of our team at VDS Chadds Ford. Coco provided therapy to nervous pet owners as they waited for their pet’s procedure to be finished. She stood watch for rogue UPS drivers and alerted all who would listen. She inspected employees’ lunch items, offering to sample each lunch to ensure sufficient quality and freshness. She helped her mom behind the reception desk in countless ways. The most difficult part of caring for a dog is this: knowing from the onset that he or she will not live long enough. Even knowing this ahead of time, it doesn’t make a loss any easier. However, we can take consolation in the memories that they provided. Ultimately, we realize that we were privileged to spend at least a small portion of our lives with them. Coco, you will be dearly missed...

Binx is a handsome 8-month-old Maine Coon cat. He's already such a big boy! His loving owners drove nearly two hours to see John Lewis, VMD, DAVDC (veterinary dentist) and Bryce Dooley, DVM, DACVAA (veterinary anesthesiologist) seeking an answer for Binx’s severe gingival enlargement (overgrowth of the gums). The enlarged gingiva was likely related to juvenile gingivitis, an abnormal immune response to plaque that accumulates on the teeth. Enlargement of the gingiva in turn r...esulted in additional plaque, inflammation and periodontal bone loss. Strict plaque control in the form of daily tooth brushing may help, but periodontal bone loss can occur at a surprisingly early age, and Binx’s anesthetized exam showed evidence of this already. Dr. Lewis extracted all of Binx’s teeth except for the canine teeth, and removed/biopsied the enlarged gingiva to ensure it was due to inflammation rather than a tumor. The very next day, VDS staff contacted Binx’s family to see how he was doing at home. He is doing remarkedly well. In fact, he was doing remarkably well last night already. He had no problems eating and has had no problem eating at all today, no problem taking his meds, it’s like he never missed a beatand then some. The biopsy results showed severe inflammation with marked hyperplasia. Recheck two weeks postoperatively showed that Binx was nicely healed, comfortable and free of inflammation, except for mild inflammation around the remaining absorbable sutures. It is widely accepted that any source of chronic inflammation is not a good thing, and periodontal inflammation can result in elevated inflammatory mediators in the bloodstream. We are so glad we were able to stack the odds in favor of a long, healthy, and comfortable life for Binx! See more

Happy Mothers’ Day!