The mouth of this 12 year old cat shows what are known as dental resorptive lesions or cervical neck lesions. This occurs when the hard tissues of the root surface are destroyed by dental clean up cells. The destruction eventually spreads to the tooth enamel along the gum line and the enamel here is either resorbed or chips off creating these painful exposed cavities (Arrows).

This dental x-ray demonstrates the appearance of these feline resorptive lesions when
Pet Care takes dental x-rays or radiographs. Note the obvious cavitated lesions(arrows).

The cause of these feline resorptive neck lesions is unknown but incidence does increase with age. Recently, excessive dietary Vitamin D has been blamed, but this has not been definitively proven as the cause. The only treatment is to extract the painful tooth. Here Dr. Fox uses our high speed dental drill to remove bone around the tooth roots in order to make extraction easier.

Here Dr Fox is suturing closed the tooth socket post extraction. Within a week affected cats are feeling much better; appetites and attitudes both improve!