Dental worry

[dooby]

We have been recommended by our vet that our dog who is female and 12 years old, should go and have her teeth cleaned but under sedation.  She's a nervous animal and doesn't take kindly to a lot of vet handling.  She responds the best to being left in peace and quiet and accepting lots of love from the family.  
I'm worried that because she's already an old dog that she won't react well to the sedation.  They said she'd be sedated for 15 minutes maximum and spend 3 hours at the vet before we would be allowed to bring her home.
Would I know if her teeth were bothering her?  How can one tell if a dog has tooth-ache?  
I just don't want her to go through any unnecessary procedures if indeed she doesn't seem to be suffering.
We're also told that if she doens't have it done that it can cause her to have stomach pains and even infections which could become dangerous.  
A second opinion would be of great value to us in knowing whether or not to proceed.

[smiley733]

I forgot one thing remember the BONES MUST BE RAW I don't want you to make a mistake as I would not want to be the cause of a cooked bone hurting your dog.  What type of food do you feed your hound is important as the cost may be more but get a high qualitiy food and not the vet's food is not always the best even though they may say so.  Just my take

[smiley733]

You should go and get a knuckle bone from the grocery store and give it to the dog raw.  Do this everyday for a week.  Freeze the bone and reuse for the week.  I am not sure where you live but where we live we can get raw turkey necks and this is like a toothbrush for our dogs and should help.  Did the vet show you the problem ????  Are there exrays of any possible damage to the teeth ??  Can she chew her food and does she appear to have trouble chewing ??  These are signs of tooth problems and how long have you been seeing this vet ?/  I suggest if not long then get a second opinion after a few weeks of raw bone chewing and you will know right away if the dog has a toothache if she doesn't seem to have trouble chewing a bone then don't get convinced to spend money.  I hate vets who look at this option as the only one as it is too risky to sedate an older dog and why as she is 12 and like us teeth aren't as good as when we were kids and in her case a puppy

[LL7970]

Personally - I don't like having to put an older dog under sedation.                     I used to work for a vet - and there is no way a dogs teeth can be cleaned in 15 min.  A normal procedure takes about an hour.