We would like to introduce our new part time associate, Dr. Ann Silverness.  Dr. Silverness has been practicing veterinary medicine for the last 20 years and has several areas of special interest to offer.   She has taken over four years of just dentistry related continuing education at the World Veterinary Dental Conferences with the intention of doing a self directed residency with the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry.  Some of the many advanced dental procedures she learned were taking and reading dental x-rays, proper surgical tooth extractions, advanced periodontal care, cavity and fractured tooth repair including root canal therapy. Despite the intensive advanced training, she ultimately decided to simply incorporate these skills into general practice instead of becoming a specialist.  Dr. Silverness is also a certified canine rehab therapist and used to own her own canine rehab center in Jacksonville.  As a result she is well versed in many alternate methods of healing and pain management including therapeutic laser, therapeutic ultrasound, neuromuscular stimulation and hands on therapies.  Dr. Silverness also has many years experience as an ER veterinarian and has treated exotics and pocket pets her entire career. Over the years she has been very active with our local Jacksonville Veterinary Medical Association and has been the CE chair, website committee chair, secretary, vice pres. and president.  She was also very involved with the initial startup of our local vet tech program in Jacksonville at Sanford Brown. High quality care and excellent client communication have always been extremely important to Dr. Silverness.  She is very excited to be a part of our team.