Protecting Your Pet's Oral Health

Dentistry isn't expensive, neglect is!

Maintaining dental health in a pet's mouth may be a bit more difficult than our own, but it's equally as important. When food is chewed, particles stick to the teeth and gums and feed plaque (sticky bacteria), which turns to tartar (mineralized plaque), which is what we want to prevent.

Preventing Plaque

• Dental Diet-Prescription dental diets formulate the kibble into larger, tougher pieces for more crunching, and enzymes which help breakdown tartar. Can also be used as treats.

• Dental Chew Toys-better than treats because theres not excess calories (>60% of pets are overweight or obese) and they provide longer enrichment. Just find something your dog likes and plays with safely (always monitor your pet with new things).

• Dental treats-There are a wide variety of options, but almost every time I compliment a client on their pet's teeth, its because they are giving frequent Greenies or C.E.T. Chews.

• Tooth Brushing-I know it sounds crazy, its hard enough to brush our own teeth twice a day, but if you can make even weekly brushing a routine you can do a lot to keep the mouth clean. Plus, you can turn this into a bonding experience so the two of your aren't tortured. The key is to go very slowly, and start by letting your pet lick some enzymatic toothpaste from the toothbrush. Do this at least daily for a week or more until your pet is excited about it. Then sneak in a quick run onto a tooth and retract before your pet gets fed up. Every week or so just keep moving deeper into the mouth with the brush. Certain pets only tolerate so much, just do what you reasonably can.

• Veterinary Dental Cleaning-taking your pet to the dentist is just like when you go to the dentist, except that your pet is sleeping with anesthesia through the procedure. Since your pet needs to be anesthetized performing pre-operative bloodwork is recommended, if not required, to ensure your pet has a low risk of anesthetic complications. Full mouth x-rays should be performed to evaluate the tooth and bone under the gums. A probe is used to check the depth of pockets between the tooth and gums. Depending on probe and x-ray results, it is determined if a tooth needs to be extracted. If so, local anesthetic injections are administered, and front teeth are elevated, canine and rear teeth are surgically extracted and the gums are sutured with absorbable stitches. Then tartar is removed, the teeth are polished, and then the pet is woken up. During this procedure all vital signs are constantly monitored and maintained. If your pet had teeth extracted they will go home with pain medications, but they rarely need antibiotics (although they are commonly prescribed). Even with many extractions, majority of pets can still eat normally at night. I personally never recommend feeding soft foods unless a pet had full mouth extractions, because if their pain is appropriately managed they should have no problem crunching kibble, and many picky pets will get too attached to wet food.

Want to know how your pet's oral health is holding up?

See stages of dental disease and schedule an oral health exam with your vet!

*Anesthesia-free dental cleanings are dangerous and highly not recommended! Learn more here.

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