Professional Periodontal Therapy and Home Care

Abstract

ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY & DENTISTRYquest. Over a period of 5 years this screening program gained the appreciation of participants and made breeders and owners aware of how serious the problem of ED was within their population. Since January 1998, the scientific committee of the national kennel club in The Netherlands (W.K. Hirschfeld Foundation) has taken over the administration and organization of the ED Committee and is planning to certify the ED status on the pedigree form. A limited number of breeds with a high risk for ED (including Labrador retrievers, Bemese mountain dogs, rottweilers, golden retrievers, German shepherds) are obliged to send in four radiographs per elbow joint for the screening program. For other breeds, which are not (yet) at high risk, two views (Mljlexed 60-90 degrees and APMO 30-45 degrees) may suffice. It was first decided by the board of the W.K. Hirschfeld Foundation to contract Dutch veterinarians who had demonstrated the ability to produce these four complicated views acceptably for screening. However, the veterinary professional organization preferred a list of accepted veterinarians, updated each year, and made known to the public. Voluntary participation by the Bemese mountain dog owners in the Netherlands has decreased the incidence of ED from 72% to 64% within 4 years. In Sweden the incidence of ED decreased in a five-year period (1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)) from 60% to 38% with the aid of an open registration (17). The shortest way to decrease an alarmingly high incidence of ED in certain breeds is voluntary or obligated standardized screening with high sensitivity and with open registration of the results in the individual animal, as well as in its offspring. Although diseases considered to belong to ED can be treated surgically with a reasonable success rate, they should instead be prevented by selective breeding.