Just as you would need to have blood work done before having a medical procedure, so does your pet. On admittance to the hospital for a dental procedure, a blood sample is drawn by the surgical veterinary technicians for pre-surgical blood work. Your veterinarian uses it to check for several things including liver and kidney functions, an increase in glucose levels, and dehydration. It is particularly important to ensure that the liver and kidneys are functioning well to be able to process the medications that are used under anesthesia. Even apparently healthy animals can have serious underlying medical issues that can only be diagnosed through blood work.

After the blood work is complete, the doctor will then review the results and decide on a safe surgical plan. If a serious medical issue is diagnosed the doctor may decide to delay the dental procedure in order to treat the medical issue. If the results are normal, the dental procedure can then be performed.

Pre-surgical blood work is not just for detecting abnormalities, but it also confirms that your pet is healthy and helps to establish a baseline for your pet’s overall health in the future. By running these tests we can help reduce the risk of anesthesia, diagnose underlying medical abnormalities, and perform the safest dental procedure possible.