Dental Disease in Dogs and Cats

This dog is about to have a dental to clean his teeth

Just like you, your pet has teeth. And just like your teeth, your pets teeth need to be taken care of!

Dental disease – starts with the build up of bacteria on the tooth surface. Once calcium becomes involved, you get a very hard substance, calculus, building up too. This builds up in layers on the tooth. In the meantime the bacteria are causing inflammation of the gums, causing them to recede (shrink away) and more tooth is exposed. Some infection actually gets below the gum line and starts to destroy the tooth attachment. These changes can make eating quite painful for your pet, as well as the fact that their teeth can fall out or even worse a large abscess can form below the gum line – often this causes a big bulge on the face, the only place where the infection can expand to.
Once dental disease has begun, the large amount of bacteria can spread to other areas of the body, such as the kidneys or heart, and cause disease in these organs.

How can you avoid this?

1. Prevent the build up of tartar – ideally this involves brushing your dog or cats teeth! Many animals are more accepting of this than you would believe, especially if you start young. You can begin by getting your pet used to having you finger in their mouth – just rub along their teeth. Then you can introduce the toothpaste – you shouldn’t use human toothpaste, which foams and is not designed to be swallowed, instead there are suitable ones for your pet. Then as you pet adapts you can start using either a scrubber, which fits over your finger, or a proper pet toothbrush.
   
   Alternatives – people use other methods to clean teeth, these mostly involve using something that your pet has to chew.

   1. Some people use bones – however there are many problems associated with this, so you use them at your own risk! Bones should never be cooked, and shouldn’t be small enough that you pet can chew them up. Bones can become stuck in the mouth or throat, or can cause blockages and tears in the stomach and intestines.
   2. Alternatively there are softer chews which are meant to be eaten, and special diets also designed to help keep teeth clean from tartar by 'scrubbing' the teeth as your pet eats.
   3. If tartar is already present – bones and brushing will not get rid of the hard calculus already present on the teeth. Your vet needs to do this using special instruments, which usually means having an anaesthetic procedure. Your vet can also have a look at all of the teeth very carefully and see if any need to be removed – teeth which are broken or infected or already partly loose need to be removed before they cause too much pain.
2. Once you have clean teeth, then you can start fresh and prevent the dental disease from coming back.

Signs your pet has dental disease

1. Your pet has really smelly breath
2. You can see yellowy-brown-grey material stuck to your pets teeth
3. Your pet has a loose tooth
4. Red, sore looking gums
5. Unable to eat properly, they may even stop eating altogether.
6. Abscesses in the jaw – they may burst through the skin on the face.