Dental Awareness Month comes to the Henrietta Animal Hospital beginning February 1,2012 and continuing to the end of that month.

This article pinpoints the importance of dental care for our feline and canine friends.

In addition, visit our facebook for added information and valuable savings on dental procedures next month.

https://www.facebook.com/HenriettaAnimalHospital

THE PET HEALTH LIBRARY
By Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, DipABVP
Educational Director, VeterinaryPartner.com

Dental Home Care
“Perio” means around, “dontal” means tooth: Periodontal disease is disease around the outside of the tooth.

Out of all the members of one’s family, the chances are it will not be difficult to guess who has the worst dental hygiene: the pets. They do not brush their teeth, nor do they floss, and this goes on for years. If you are ever curious as to what happens if teeth go for years without brushing (or you want to show your children what will become of their teeth should they fail to brush regularly), you have only to look at your pet’s teeth and smell your pet’s breath.

A full 85% of pets have periodontal disease by age 3 years.

This should not be surprising since there is little difference physically between the dog or cat’s tooth and the human tooth. We all have a set of baby teeth that come in and fall out to make way for adult teeth. We all have nerves and blood vessels in our teeth surrounded by dentin, which is surrounded in turn by a hard coat of enamel. The enamel is bathed in saliva and quickly is covered by plaque (bacteria mixed with saliva). If we do not regularly disinfect our mouths and brush away the plaque, the plaque will mineralize into tartar (also called calculus – gritty material that the dental hygienist scrapes away). Tartar, being solid and gritty, blocks oxygen from bathing the outer tooth and thus changes the nature of the bacteria that can live around the tooth. The bacteria that can withstand the oxygen-poor environment (anaerobic bacteria) are more harmful to the bone and tissues of the gum. The periodontal ligament becomes damaged, the bone around the tooth is literally eaten away, and the gums become sensitive. Eventually the tooth is lost and, if the bone damage is severe enough, the jaw can actually break. Worse still, the bacteria of the mouth can seed other areas in the body leading to infection in the heart, liver, kidney or virtually anywhere the bloodstream carries them. In addition bad teeth leads tocconstant pain, tooth loss and other digestive problems. Fortunately it is easily treated, controlled and very often cured.

In a normal mouth the teeth are clean and white and there is no redness or swelling in the surrounding gums. With gingivitis, the gum is clearly red and swollen (there is also yellowish brown tartar extending down the length of the tooth). In the third stage of periodontal disease where up to 50% of the bone attachment is lost. Notice the exposure of the tooth roots.

Gingivitis is reversible. Bone loss, once it starts, is not reversible.

It is a good idea to become comfortable opening your pet’s mouth and looking inside. Lift the lip and look at the teeth, especially the back teeth. Open the mouth and look at the inside of the teeth and at the tongue. If you have pets of different ages, compare what you see inside.

Regular Professional Cleaning

It should not be surprising that dental health requires period professional cleaning regardless of whether the mouth in question belongs to a person, a dog, a cat, a horse, or some other animal. Home care of the tooth is never perfect and periodically tartar must be properly removed and the tooth surface properly polished and disinfected. The professional cleaning performed at the veterinarian’s office is similar to what a person receives at their dentist’s office:

Gross (visible) tartar is removed with instruments.
More delicate tartar deposits are removed from the gum line with different instruments.
Periodontal sockets are probed and measured to assess periodontal disease.
The roots are planed, (meaning tartar is scraped from below the gum line) until the roots are smooth again.
The enamel is polished to remove any unevenness left by tartar removal.
The mouth is disinfected and possibly treated with a sealer or plaque repellent.
Professional notes are taken on a dental chart, noting abnormalities on each of the dog’s 42 teeth, or the cat’s 30 teeth.
It is important to note that a “non-anesthetic” teeth cleaning is not comparable to the above service.

It is not possible to perform the “six step” cleaning in a pet without general anesthesia.

Cosmetic cleanings do not address periodontal disease where it occurs: under the gum line. Avoid having groomers or other people in the pet industry offer to do a dental scaling. In many states, including New York, this is illegal as it is a veterinary procedure that should only be performed by a professional.

Home Care Products

Toothpaste and Brushing
Just as with your own teeth, nothing beats brushing. The fibers of the toothbrush are able to reach between teeth and under gums to pick out tiny deposits of food. A toothbrush acts as a tiny scrub brush for the closest possible cleaning.

Notice the shape of the canine and feline brushes and how they conform to a pet’s mouth. You can use a human toothbrush but you will probably find it difficult to manipulate in the pet’s mouth. Never use a human toothpaste for a pet as these contain sudsing agents (people like to see foam when they brush their teeth) that are not meant to be swallowed in quantity. Animal toothpastes come in pet-preferred flavors (chicken, seafood, and malt) in addition to the more human-appreciated mint and all are expected to be swallowed.

Finger brushes are available and are smaller for puppies and kittens.

Studies have shown that brushing three times a week was adequate to maintain healthy teeth and gums but daily brushing was needed to control existing gingivitis.

Do’s and Don’ts of Brushing Your Pet’s Teeth

Don’t use human toothpaste on your pet.

Do use a toothbrush without any paste at first so that your pet may get used to the object in the mouth before having to contend with flavor.

Don’t attempt to clean the inner surface of your pet’s teeth. Natural saliva cleans this surface on its own.

Do try to perform dental home care at least once daily.

Don’t perform dental home care during the first week after a full dentistry in the hospital as your pet’s gums may be tender.

Don’t consider dental home care as an alternative to full dental cleaning if your pet has more advanced dental disease.

Dental Wipes, Rinses and Pads
Some animals, especially those with tender gums, will not tolerate brushing but are more amenable to disinfecting wipes or pads. These products will wipe off plaque deposits from the surface of the tooth and, though they lack the ability to pick food particles out of the gum socket, they are probably the next best thing to brushing and, like brushing, these products are best used daily.

Sanos

This innovative, easy-to-use, professionally applied dental barrier dries rapidly to create a clear sealant on the animal’s sub-gingival gum line that helps keep the oral cavity clean and aids in extending the benefits of prophylaxis. A SANOS™ application lasts up to 6 months.

Dental Treats
For many people, doing anything inside their pet’s mouth on a regular basis is simply never going to happen. Fortunately, all is not lost: chewing on a proper dental chew can reduce plaque by up to 69%. This may not be as good as brushing but it certainly beats doing nothing. There are many products available for both dogs and cats. How often does the pet need to chew?

Not all chews are alike. Chewing provides abrasion against the tooth removing plaque and tartar. Some chews and biscuits include the ingredient hexametaphosphate, which prevents the mineralization of plaque into tartar. (In one study, two such biscuits daily removed 46% of tartar in time.) The Forte feline chews were found effective in reducing plaque and tartar but cats had to eat one chew daily to achieve benefit.

Digestible Chew Products for Cats and Dogs

Both are approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council, a group that awards its seal of approval to treats and diets showing scientific evidence of plaque and tartar retardation.
See a list of the VOHC’s currently approved products: http://www.vohc.org/accepted_products.htm

Dental Diets

There is a common misconception that simply feeding a kibbled diet will protect teeth from dental disease. Consider what it would be like to attempt to replace brushing your own teeth with eating crunchy foods and it is easy to see how ineffective this method would be. When it comes to pet foods, much of the kibble is swallowed whole and not chewed at all.

Clearly, there must be more to a dental diet than simple kibbling and in fact there is. Dental diets on the market today use several techniques to help reduce plaque. The first is that the kibbles are very large, which means the pet must chew them before swallowing them. These diets are high in fiber, which means the kibbles do not shatter when chewed but instead the tooth sinks into the kibble allowing plaque to be essentially scrubbed away. The large kibbles may pose an acceptance problem for the pet, leading the owner to use them as treats or mixed with other kibbles. The smaller the percentage of the diet these kibbles represent, the less benefit will be reaped. It is also important to realize that these diets are helpful only in cleaning the molars and premolars (i.e. the chewing teeth) and do not help the fangs or incisors.

Date Published: 1/1/2001
Date Reviewed/Revised: 10/2/2011

Copyright 2011 – 2012 by the Veterinary Information Network, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article is also available to our clients at Veterinary Partner at http://www.VeterinaryPartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=640.