I really need help from those of you have experiences with dentals.

Do you belief it is better to have a conscious dental with a less savvy rabbit vet or one with sedation with a more rabbit savvy vet?
Julie is 81/2 and had her first dental a few months ago which was due to misalignment of front teeth due to age according to her regular vet.
A tooth was poking her cheek in one place and one was poking her tongue. The vet who did the dental is Julie's regular vet and is the most experienced rabbit savvy vet around this area. She does do a high volume of dentals.
My concerns are with the sedation as Julie was very sleepy when I took her home and out of it all day into the next day. This vet says that she does not do conscious dentals and will only look in their mouths under sedation then do the dental while still sedated. This vet is is also not close to us and Julie hates to travel.
Julie has another vet that she saw once that is an exotic vet and is very close to us. She is book rabbit savvy but admits to not having lots of rabbit patients. She does look in the rabbits mouth and does dentals without sedation unless she needs to clip the teeth then she uses the same sedation that the other vet uses.
Julie had her teeth filed not clipped.
I am so torn as to what is best. She needs to be checked for a dental and I am so afraid of her not coming out of the sedation but also very worried about having a vet whom does not have as much experience do the dental.
Thing is the savvy experienced vet thinks the sedation is mild and safe and that dentals are routine and the less experienced rabbit vet is very cautious of sedation and thinks dentals are a big deal. Please just give your opinion as to which vet you would use if Julie was yours and why.

Hello, i would choose a rabbit savvy vet over a less experienced one for sure. In fact, i think (and have been told) is that having a dental without sedation is actually quite dangerous as bunnies may move snd squirm during the procedure and you risk cutting the tongue accidentally. My vet who specialises in dentals said he he would not do it unless the bunny was sedated. Too risky. That said, i hear on the forum that some vets would do filing/clipping without sedation.

My girl Lilou is a dental bun so we have made quite a few enquires on this. Like you, i didnt like the idea of her being sedated especially as at the peak of her problem, she was having dentals once a month! But we were assured that the dose was tiny, it was generally very safe and a standard procedure. I 'resolved' her issue in the end bu significantly changing her diet although i know that may not help for all buns.

Happy 2013 to you nevertheless! :wave:

The issue of conscious vs non conscious dentals has caused some friction on the forum in the past leading to locked threads. Personally I wouldn't allow one of mine to have a conscious dental, my vet won't perform them anyway.

Elena said:

The issue of conscious vs non conscious dentals has caused some friction on the forum in the past leading to locked threads. Personally I wouldn't allow one of mine to have a conscious dental, my vet won't perform them anyway.

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Ditto

Elena said:

The issue of conscious vs non conscious dentals has caused some friction on the forum in the past leading to locked threads. Personally I wouldn't allow one of mine to have a conscious dental, my vet won't perform them anyway.

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this :wave:

Okay. So it is riskier to do a conscious dental than the risk of sedation is to her? That is what I wanted to know. i want Julie to be the safest.
The more experienced vet which is Julie's regular vet does not do conscious dentals.
I called the second vet whom thinks that sedation is what is risky so I called Julie's vet back and asked why she doesn't do conscious dentals. She is not in the office until Wednesday but the receptionist said it was because rabbits are incapable of keeping their mouths open and staying alert at the same time so there is a risk of the vet getting bit. I thought this didn't sound right.
The vet is suppose to call me Wednesday to address my concerns and fears of her being sedated because of how long it took for her to come around last time. She said the vet will try to accommodate somehow or come up with a solution which will be in Julie's best interest.
So I wanted as much information as possible before talking to her.
How many of you have lost a rabbit from the sedation from a dental? Julie is extremely precious to us.

things that put me off conscious ones are the fact they can't see all the teeth properly so won't be able to fix them, stress to the rabbit, potential pain factor.

This is how they keep a rabbits mouth open during a GA dental, I would assume they have to do this to a conscious rabbit too

To do a dental on a conscious rabbit, you have to use the brace thing and clip the teeth. Clipping teeth is dangerous as there's a high chance the tooth will crack and it would be very difficult to remove spurs etc on teeth with a clipper.

You wouldn't be able to use the grinder/drill thing because the tongue would be in the way and everything would get bloody, you wouldn't be able to move the rabbit's head [well without excessive force that would probably shock the rabbit so much it could lead to stasis].
Rabbits have to be tranced too [knowingly] if a dental's performed without sedation and this is very stressful for them as the only time they trance themselves is when they play dead amongst the presence of a predator.

I didn't realise this until I saw a dental being performed whilst on work experience at the vets
So I would always recommend dentals with sedation

whitehood said:

To do a dental on a conscious rabbit, you have to use the brace thing and clip the teeth. Clipping teeth is dangerous as there's a high chance the tooth will crack and it would be very difficult to remove spurs etc on teeth with a clipper.

You wouldn't be able to use the grinder/drill thing because the tongue would be in the way and everything would get bloody, you wouldn't be able to move the rabbit's head [well without excessive force that would probably shock the rabbit so much it could lead to stasis].
Rabbits have to be tranced too [knowingly] if a dental's performed without sedation and this is very stressful for them as the only time they trance themselves is when they play dead amongst the presence of a predator.

I didn't realise this until I saw a dental being performed whilst on work experience at the vets

So I would always recommend dentals with sedation

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On one of my Rabbits I believe !! :wave:

we hsave insisors burred without GA
But always have molar dentals done with GA .

Jack's-Jane said:

On one of my Rabbits I believe !! :wave:

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Yea

Off topic...who??

Bunnytoes - I have no advice but I wanted to send vibes to lovely Julie.

xx

My Amber has the occasional 'concious' dental but ONLY when it is a one tooth spur (always the same tooth). This is done wthout the gag and she lets the vet do it. It was just an idea by my vet which works for Amber and my vets never promote it. Her gut is slow to kick start after a GA BUT if she ever needs anything more than a quick one-two file, she has GA. My other bun who has a misalignment will always have GA. I wouldnt ever recommend a concious dental as a rule.