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AVDS Annual General Meeting The AVA conference in Perth in May is fast approaching, and so is the Annual General Meeting of the Australian Veterinary Dental Society. It will be held at the conference on Tuesday 27th May 2008, all members are welcome and encouraged to attend. Come and discuss what the AVDS has been doing this past year, and have your say in the Society’s plans for advancing veterinary dentistry in the future! Linked below are two forms:
Please forward these forms to me (email) or hand them in person to an AVDS committee member by 5pm on Monday 26th May 2008, if you wish to nominate someone, or vote by proxy. If you have trouble downloading these forms please email Christine with your fax number and they will be faxed to you. We look forward to seeing many of you at the conference, we have an exciting program with 2 days of lectures (Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th May) and a hands-on wetlab for canine dentistry on the Friday (30th May). Feel free to contact me for any further information. Cheers, christine@sydneypetdentistry.com.au
The purpose of writing these AVDS guidelines is to clarify to the profession and if necessary, to the public, what is considered to be a professionally performed dental examination and treatment in dogs and cats, and also in the equine patient. The equine guidelines document covers the examination, treatment planing and therapy of oral diseases in the equine species by a ‘practitioner’. This term has been used intentionally as has been explained below. Finally, the ‘Position Statement’ was written to draw attention to the need for general anaesthesia to allow a thorough dental examination and treatment in dogs and cats. It is the position of the AVDS that these procedures cannot be adequately performed in a conscious or sedated patient. As an indication for the need for guidelines such as these, we note the article in the Victorian Veterinary Practitioner’s registration Board ‘Board Update’, Vol.31, No.1; in which there was an article on ‘Cutting of Overgrown Rabbit Incisors’ citing Dr Narelle Walter’s comments on this practice. The other concern of the AVDS, the EVA (Equine Veterinary Association) and many AVA practitioner members themselves is the practice of equine dentistry and surgery by lay persons who often call themselves ‘equine dentists’. In the light that ‘lay equine dentists’ are not new, that the EDAA is already well established and organized; and that they profess to have a ‘code of practice’ with ‘registration’, checks and balances, including a disciplinary code, the AVDS accepts that they will continue to practice in this unregulated business world we live in; however, we would like them to have to abide by the laws of the state and the same animal welfare concerns that our profession upholds. By producing and distributing these guidelines, we aim to have an educational influence over the horse handlers, trainers and owners so that they may make a better, informed choice when choosing an ‘equine dentist’ to attend to their animal. As a final point, we stress that the access to and use of restricted including sedatives and anaesthetic agents by laypersons is unlawful. We would like it recorded that the veterinary profession in general opposes the access of lay persons to restricted drugs as we see it opening the door to abuse, lack of proper control and misuse. We see that the use of such drugs by laypersons, such as ‘lay equine dentists’, may lead to attempts to do other procedures, such as castrations and the suturing of wounds etc. It would also enable laypersons to attempt dental/oral procedures far beyond their ability or training allows. Dr Wayne Fitzgerald, BVSc (Hons), MACVSc (Vet Dentistry) AVDS Position Statement. August 2007 Subject: Teeth cleaning in conscious dogs and cats. The AVDS has produced a document: ‘Dental Guidelines’ to inform and guide the Veterinary Profession, its organizations, the State Veterinary Boards and the public as to what it considers reasonable practice in conducting examinations and dental treatments on dogs and cats. The preamble clearly states: “The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines to veterinarians to perform a ‘dental’ procedure in dogs and cats. By a ‘dental’, we are referring to the necessary steps to perform an initial oral assessment, an assessment under general anaesthesia of any oral pathology present, the recording of findings and the development of a treatment plan, cleaning of the teeth both above and below the gum line, formulation of guidelines for home care and follow-up management.” In the section headed: “Oral examination, diagnosis and treatment planning”, it states: “Complete oral examination can only be performed with the animal anaesthetised; excessive calculus deposits may need to be removed to aid in the more accurate measuring of pocket depths with a periodontal probe. And again, under the heading “Steps for dental cleaning.”
The AVDS indicates that in its opinion, it is not possible to perform a thorough and complete dental examination in the conscious dog or cat. On behalf of the AVDS, Canine and Feline Dental Guidelines In conjunction with Pet Dental Health Month the AVDS is releasing proposed guidelines for the dog and cat. This was presented to the AVA in Melbourne in May 2007 at the annual conference. We hope to initiate work on the Equine Dental Guidelines soon. Cat and Dog Dental Guidelines can be found here. President’s report The routine procedures that ‘filled the day’ years ago: desexings, flea and parasite control, treating trauma cases, distemper, parvo-virus, even heartworm …have declined to very low levels. If potentially, 4 out of 5 dogs and cats over the age of 3 that walk through our doors have some dental disease, then it behoves us to look, see and discuss these issues with our clients. Ignorance is not bliss anymore. ‘CE’ is not just a meaningless symbol, it is a way of life today. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association is meeting in Sydney 20-23 August 2007. The dental presentations have been finalized and will be presented on Monday the 20th. For further information on these events, please contact me on: waynefitz@bigpond.com Regards, Brazil: World Veterinary Dental Congress. Representing the AVDS, Rod Salter, Tony Caiafa and I set out from Melbourne on Monday the 16th April 2007 primarily to attend the 10th World Veterinary Dental Congress to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Just prior to the conference, we made a 4 day side trip to the Amazonian jungle and took the opportunity to check the dentition on the Cayman (local crocodile), the Piranha (went fishing), the jaguar (no, not the car!) and 2 varieties of local monkey. We also had our guide demonstrate to us the medicines and ‘bush-tucker’ from the jungle. They even had a local version of the witchety grub!
I donated 2 Australian Harley Davidson T-shirts to our guide and another friend in the camp, and Rod and I were inducted into the ‘tribe’. I was sorry I hadn’t travelled with more Aussie memorabilia to give away. This side trip was very worthwhile as it opened our eyes to the area, its people, its problems and its vast resources.
The congress itself was very well organized and attended by about 500 vets with 3 consecutive streams running with excellent translations as necessary. The opportunity to refresh friendships and make new ones and leave our ‘Aussie mark’ in South America was not lost on us. We are now very fluent in the Samba and Tango, and understand just how hard the South American’s can party!
Of special interest was a lecture by Dr Juan Jose Krauss from Argentina, he outlined his efforts to introduce veterinary dentistry to Argentina. He is determined to continue his education of the practitioners and the universities; we could empathize as we had been there before! In fact we are still trying… After the congress, we three plus colleagues: Drs Loic Legrendre (Vancouver) and Bill Gengler (USA) travelled to Rio de Janeiro where we met up with a local vet Dr Claudia de Paula Ferreira da Costa who showed us the town! Bill is to be inducted as President of the American College of Veterinary Dentistry in 2008, so we didn’t miss the opportunity to be good hosts and to collect ‘blackmail’ material…
Rio had no shortage of stunning landscapes and bikinis, more Brazilian BBQ’s and more suicidal traffic! We learned a lot.
Melbourne: Australian Veterinary Association’s annual meeting/conference. The AVDS ran a full day’s lectures on Monday the 14th May, followed by a ‘basic’ dental wet lab on the Wednesday and an ‘advanced’ wet lab on Friday. These were all very well attended, however the basic lab proved so popular that we reconfigured it and twice extended it, finally limiting it to 40 attendees. As in past years, iM3 greatly assisted us by supplying 8 dental bases, 8 ultrasonic scalers and assorted hand instruments etc. The effort to do this was not lost on us and we are indebted to Phillip and Lehman Bloom for their effort in supplying all of this equipment plus setting it all up and then packing it all up again! A massive effort. We would also like to thank Royal Canin, VetQuip and ZebraVet for assisting us with material and dental literature. We note that dental basics are still sought after by practitioners, especially extractions. The opportunity to do this plus charting, cleaning, surgical flaps and some radiology was open and the attendees progressed at their own pace; the aim was to get the most out of the day. The reviews of the day’s proceedings were all positive and this was by far the best (and largest) effort we have done and ranks at least as good as anything done overseas. This theme also ran through the ‘advanced’ wet lab with a relaxed agenda covering oro-nasal fistula surgery, vital pulpotomy, advanced oral radiology plus some oral surgery and fracture repair. Dr Gary Wilson gave two equine dental lectures on the Thursday afternoon. The AVDS held its annual general meeting (Minutes are here) and elections on the Monday and Wayne Fitzgerald, waynefitz@bigpond.com remains president, Dr Christine Hawke was elected Secretary/Treasurer: c.hawke@bigpond.com World Congress in Sydney 2007: The World Small Animal Veterinary Association is holding its 32nd Congress in Sydney this August. The AVDS is having a day of dental lectures on the Monday the 20th and Dr Mary Hernandez is coming out from the USA to present. We are also holding a wet lab on the preceding Saturday, the 18th. For enquiries regarding attending the wet lab, please contact myself or Dr Tony Caiafa on toothdoc@tpg.com.au Wayne Fitzgerald, President AVDS Downloads We have recently added some more content to this section (21/06/2006). Papers presented at 2005 AVA Conference (Gold Coast)
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