Fiona Duff: There's moolah in animal molars

I don't suppose that you would know this unless you had to visit him, but there's a man in North Berwick who has a dental vet practice.
Who knew there were specialists in dog teeth?Who knew there were specialists in dog teeth?
Who knew there were specialists in dog teeth?

Indeed I know him, as Daniel the Spaniel has been having a bit of a problem with his teeth. The first sign was that his breath became absolutely toxic – I mean it could take you out from several feet away.

People would bend down to give him a pat on the head and then recoil with disgust when they got a whiff.

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So we took him to North Berwick to meet the dental vet and a couple of hours later he emerged very groggy and with several gnashers fewer than when he had entered the building.

Apparently he had some horrible ulcers that his breed can be prone to – luckily for my bank balance PetPlan coughed up, as it certainly wasn’t a cheap day out by the seaside.

While I was waiting to collect him I looked at some photographs on the wall. For some reason I thought that this chap only saw dogs, for indeed that was the only type of animal I saw there.

However, my eyes almost popped out when I saw pictures of him operating on a polar bear as well as what looked like a gorilla or some sort of large simian creature. So how does someone decide to be a specialist dental vet, I wondered. Did he train as a dentist and then decide that dealing with humans was too boring? Or did he train as a vet and then think that teeth were the only interesting thing?

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It’s the sort of subject which is of interest as I have a son about to leave university and a daughter with only one more full year at school. They’ll need to decide what they will do to earn a crust.

Unfortunately neither of them is likely to become a dental vet, as I reckon that there is a lot of money to be made.

I suppose it’s too late for me to retrain as well.