Periodontal Disease: Carson

This is about as bad as it will get!

In February of 2012, a Cocker Spaniel named Carson came to our facility for treatment. Carson presented with what looked like a significant wound above his lip. The owner explained that several months prior, the dog had had a problem with the inside of the lip and believed that the surface wound was caused by a fence at home.

Once under anesthesia, we lifted up the dog's lip and found that in actuality, the dog had such severe periodontal disease that it caused ulceration of the gum that then ate through the thick skin to the outside of the dog's face.

As you can see from the photo, the q-tip is coming from the inside of the lip, through the gum, to the outside of the face. The dog reeked of infection. and the smell permeated our clothing. Poor Carson had necrotic tissue and swelling on the inner and outer surfaces.

After extracting the canine, large incisor and two small incisors, we lasered virtually the entire inside of the dogs mouth with our co2 laser. The laser beam touched all of the surfaces and looked much like burnishing once completed. As part of the process, the gum tissue was then sprayed with water. Once the water was absorbed into the skin, it became hardly noticeable. There was no bleeding inside the mouth. The laser was used in all of the extraction cavities, killing all bacteria and cauterizing as we went along. Intricate layers of suturing were done to the lip by our veterinarian so that Carson left looking like a dog again.

Because of the significant infection and the fragile suturing, Carson dog may need further surgeries. We will continue to update Carson's progress.