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Bone Roungers

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Charlotte

Charlotte

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After Vedra showed me how to clip teeth, I want to purchase some bone roungers for myself.

Vedra told me that I need to purchase the Daniel roungers from Timesco London for the molars, but does anyone know which ones I need for the incisors? In the front of her book it mentions Glasgow roungers, but I think I remember Cairn being mentioned too?

They are £100 a pop, so I don't wnat to buy the wrong ones! If all fails I'll just email the CCT, but I never get a reply from emails so I'm trying here first.

Charlotte x
 
I use the Daniel roungers for the front teeth aswell. I know Vedra uses a slightly bigger set but at the time I dont think I could afford it (had my dental equip for a few years now). Sorry I didnt pm you back about coming over to do some dental work, seeing this thread reminded me :o. I will pm you soon to sort something out :)
 
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Buy some side cutters from the local diy shop, for the incisors, cost about £10.
I would most strongly urge you to think the whole idea through carefully before spending a lot of money.
It is essential to have a thorough understanding of the form and function of the teeth and mouth before going anywhere near a gps mouth. This is even before you consider the amount of manual dexterity needed to use the instruments correctly and safely.
Likewise you will need an operating light of some description.
It is very easy to cause damage to the teeth and soft tissue of the mouth. You must know what can go wrong and how to deal with it. For example, the guinea pig moves unexpectedly and you cut it's tongue or cheek which then starts to bleed profusely.
Very, very occasionally a gp will go into respiratory arrest, what then?
Before you ask, both emergencies have happened here in the last 6 months. Neither pig belonged to me. Fortunately both pigs survived the "experience".
Incidents like those are very rare occurences but you need to be prepared.Think and think again-not for the faint hearted!
 
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alcesterpigs said:
Buy some side cutters from the local diy shop, for the incisors, cost about £10.
I would most strongly urge you to think the whole idea through carefully before spending a lot of money.
It is essential to have a thorough understanding of the form and function of the teeth and mouth before going anywhere near a gps mouth. This is even before you consider the amount of manual dexterity needed to use the instruments correctly and safely.
Likewise you will need an operating light of some description.
It is very easy to cause damage to the teeth and soft tissue of the mouth. You must know what can go wrong and how to deal with it. For example, the guinea pig moves unexpectedly and you cut it's tongue or cheek which then starts to bleed profusely.
Very, very occasionally a gp will go into respiratory arrest, what then?
Before you ask, both emergencies have happened here in the last 6 months. Neither pig belonged to me. Fortunately both pigs survived the "experience".
Incidents like those are very rare occurences but you need to be prepared.Think and think again-not for the faint hearted!
Click to expand...

If done properly, conscious dentals should not cause damage to the teeth or cause respiratory arrest. I hardly think a cheap piece of equipment from a local diy shop will be suitable to do safe and acurate dental work. Roungers, although expensive have indents in the ends which capture the teeth when you clip them to prevent them going down the guinea pigs throat. In all the years I have done dental work on piggies (and on many, many pigs I might add) I have never once caused serious damage let alone manage to make the pig go into respiratory arrest rolleyes. Charlotte is seeking help and training from Vedra at the CCT who does know what she is doing :)
 
I do think alcesterpigs makes a very good point though in that when undertaking dental work you need to be very aware of what could possibly go wrong.

I do worry that people think they can just buy the tools they need to do the job and just get on with it! I'm not suggesting for one minute that is the case with Charlotte, but lots of people read these boards.
 
Thanks everyone for your posts, especially SGP.

I must make it clear that I've kept many rescue guinea pigs for many years and I've never attempted to do any dental work. I never would, without the correct tools and training.

I currently have one pig who will need regular attention and my local vets refuse to do anything without full anesthetic. It therefore makes sense for me to learn how to do the maintenance myself.

I must point out that I haven't undertaken this decision lightly; I made the five hour round trip to see Vedra at the CCT to seek her advice. She spent time with me, one on one, showing me how to towel wrap the pig, insert the buccal pads and use the roungers. I bought the buccal pads from her then and there and she recommended that I buy the roungers.

I am buying the correct dental equipment because that's what Vedra recommended and I wouldn't do anything less. In that sense, the money spent is completely irrelevant. My pigs are far more precious to me that any amount of money.

I have practiced towel wrapping the pigs myself and once I've got the right tools I'm booking onto a dental workshop with Vedra so I can practice more with them before attempting any dental work by myself.

At the end of the day, I can't go to my vets for any dental work, and the tools might cost me a few hundred quid, but what of it? I know I'm going the right way about this, and I trust Vedra completely.

Charlotte x :)
 
I can only repeat that £10 side cutters are good for the job. You must appreciate that any dental, medical or veterinary equipment is very expensive compared to diy tools. Likewise with files, a metal work needle file is superb for smoothing teeth, cost about £2. What sort of light will you get? Don't forget you will need a blunt instrument to probe those areas you cannot see by direct vision. How will you sterilise the instruments?
It is how you use the instruments that matters, not the instruments themselves.

Best of luck.
 
sgprescue
I note that you never managed to get a pig to go into repiratory arrest as though the operator deliberately goes out of their way to cause this. I can reassure you that I did not want the pig to go into respiratory arrest, it just happened. Like most emergencies it happened without warning, first time in 20 years, but I am always aware of what can go wrong and what to do.
 
There is info in Vedra's book about sterilising instruments but I'll double check on everything with her when I do the dental course.

I'll start looking at lights soon. Maybe one with a magnifying glass built in would be good, like Vedra has.

The money spent is of no real importance to me; if I can learn the techniques correctly it'll all be an investment in any case. And anyway, I like splashing out when it comes to my pigs.

Thanks again for all the posts.

Charlotte x
 
The magnifying lights with a fluorescent tube around the circumference are next to useless. They illuminate the periphery of the field of view but not the centre, which is where the pig's mouth is. You will, with much practice, learn to work by touch alone for example, when trimming the disto-lingual cusp of the last molar as it is impossible to see anything when the relevant instrument is in place and the tongue decides to have a mind of it's own!
Be patient and have fun but no mishaps.
 
More random thoughts.
An otoscope is worth the money, I bought mine about 12 years ago, the cost was about £150. Check the web, I believe there are some plastic type 'scopes which are just as good as the metal ones but at a fraction of the cost.
You will find a pen torch useful but make sure it is a white light, the blue tinted lights are no good because of the low contrast level in the mouth.
Some dental problems are sorted out in one visit, others may take any numbers of sessions whilst a few can never be cured, only managed.
At the risk of upsetting some readers, the best way to learn your way around the mouth is to use a dead guinea pig. The advantages are that it will, obviously, keep still, you can experiment to find a comfortable working position and you will not have the constant fear of irreparable damage if a tooth breaks in a way you did not intend. It is the ideal way to learn.
 
I can't add any useful advice or comments but would like to wish you the very best with your undertaking Charlotte. Trained people who can do dentals on guineas are few and far between and if one more is prepared to go to the time and expense to learn the technique correctly, I say well done and we need more like you.
 
Lavenderjade. Very few and very far between.
I saw a pig on two occasions last year for dental treatment. Nothing unusual in itself. What did make it memorable was that the owner came from Plymouth, a 400 mile round-trip, all because she could find no-one any closer prepared to look at the pig's teeth. I have just found the emails relating to Molly, she was about 4 years old and had never been a big pig, she only weighed one pound and had a loose lower incisor. Unfortunately, she died about a month later, she had gone below the critical weight from which there was no recovery. The only consolation was that for the last few weeks of her life she had started to eat by herself. The obvious moral is that there is a need for more and more people to be dentally competent.
Competency is not achieved over-night so get learning asap.
 
What would be good is if some vets bothered to take the time to learn dental procedures without anaesthetic, this would benefit people who normally only go to the vets and don't know about the CCT.
With regards to lights, I use a headlamp that contains lots of powerful little LED's, I look like an idiot wearing it but its perfect for examining in a piggies mouth. I also purchased a blunt flat dental tool from an internet veterinary equipment supplier which is brilliant to use in the sides and at the back of the mouth when looking for stray spurs, I will see if I can find the link.
 
This is similar to my headlamp, although mine has more LED's in it [ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bright-LED-Headlamp/dp/B001F7NHCA/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=diy&qid=1238600128&sr=1-22[/ame]
 
Some years ago I visited a vet who used GA for dental work to demonstrate that GA is not necessary. Firstly he told me that putting a pig on it's back would kill it from fright/shock!! After the pig had been on it's back for 15 minutes, and had not died, I trimmed it's teeth. The vet said GA is a matter of opinion. NO IT IS NOT.
As I walked out I said that one day he would kill someone's favourite pet.
 
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