DENTAL AND ORAL SURGERY CHECK-IN

Please review the following information prior to your pet’s procedure. You can ask questions and let us know your preferences for optional services and additional procedures at your convenience, before the appointment by phone or email, or at the time or admission.

Here is our check-in list, followed by the same list with detailed information.

What is today's procedure?

Pre-anesthetic blood profile, other lab screening

With routine cleaning and evaluation, do you want dental xrays (strongly recommended)?

Additional procedures

Today's contact name and phone number(s)

Estimate, treatment plan: Do you want to be called with an updated plan and estimate during the procedure? If not, what are your cost or procedure limits? 

Admission and discharge information

Consent to sign at time of admission, including information about hospitalization, estimate, and emergency care

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What is today’s procedure? Your technician will ask you what procedure(s) your pet will be having. Even if it is simply an annual cleaning and evaluation we will ask.  Yes, this information will already be in our medical notes and it may be very obvious, but please bear with us  - we believe it is important  to double- and triple- check this information.

Laboratory Screening  We strongly recommend a pre-anesthetic blood profile to help completely assess your pet’s health prior to surgery. This profile also serves as an important baseline reference for your pet if she or he should need diagnostics in the future.

 Other tests, including urinalysis, heartworm test, leukemia/aids virus test, whole-body (as opposed to dental) xrays and ultrasound may be important to consider, depending upon your pet ‘s age, breed, health status and the procedure it will undergo; we will help you sort through these options.

Additional Procedures  Take advantage of your pet’s stay with us to have additional services such as the annual check-up, nail trim, microchipping, etc. Depending upon what your pet is having for a primary procedure, you may be able to choose to take advantage of the anesthesia to have us remove a troublesome wart or cyst, and so forth.

Estimate  Anesthesia is always required for an accurate and detailed evaluation of a pet’s mouth. Our findings with the anesthetized exam always vary, by a little or a lot, from our findings on the awake exam. Once we have evaluated your pet under anesthesia, and while it is still anesthetized, we will call you with a treatment plan and estimate; please provide a contact name and number that we can use between 8 am and 2 pm.

 If you will not be available by phone or would prefer not to be called you can set your limits prior to the procedure. This might be cost, in which case we will not perform any procedure that exceeds your upper limit, or it might be the extent of the procedure: you can tell us "Do everything you believe is needed", or "Clean and evaluate my pet's mouth today and I will consider any further treatment recommendations and schedule additional procedure(s) in the future". We will not proceed with a treatment plan without either your approval by phone at the time of the procedure or your prior approval.

 The price of a cleaning and evaluation is fixed; the price of oral surgery, including extractions, varies with each individual pet's procedure and is determined by the amount of anesthesia and surgery time, medications, and related diagnostics and treatments. To help with your decision on cost the estimate will indicate which procedures are optional, and will include a sample charge for oral surgery requiring a small amount of time.

A special note about dental xrays: We charge for dental xrays separately from other procedures. For extractions and other oral surgeries xrays are required. We do not require them for a routine cleaning and evaluation, but they are very highly recommended.

 If, on an exam prior to the anesthetized evaluation, we have identified a problem that we are confident will require a moderate to large amount of oral surgery time, then we will provide an estimate at the time of admission that includes those prices, but we will still not proceed with a definitive treatment plan without either your approval by phone at the time of the procedure or your prior approval.

Admission  Your pet should be dropped off between 7:30 and 8:30 on the morning of dentistry. She can have water and a half-sized breakfast prior to coming in. We will ask you for your contact name and phone number for the day.

Discharge  For safety we will keep your pet hospitalized for a few hours after it has recovered from anesthesia; most dogs and cats are discharged between 4 and 6 pm.

Consent  We will ask you or your representative to sign the following dental consent when your pet is admitted:

General  I understand that there are risks associated with any medical procedure, including anesthesia, surgery, treatments, diagnostics, and hospitalization. I release YVC from all liability in the absence of gross negligence.

Estimate and Payment  I have received or waived an estimate for these procedures and I understand that payment in full is expected when my pet is discharged.

Emergencies  I authorize emergency treatment of my pet and I accept full financial responsibility for this care. I have specified to the YVC staff admitting my pet any particular details of this care, such as a do-not-resuscitate order.

Hospitalization  YVC is staffed from 7 am to 6:30 pm Monday through Friday and, with intermittent breaks, from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. There are no staff members routinely present at any other time.