EDMOND —
We need to remember February is National Pet Dental Health Month. Remembering to care for your pet’s teeth is central to their entire health. If teeth are not regularly checked, cleaned and cared for, periodontal disease develops. This is an inflammation of the gums and can lead to bone damage, tooth loss, heart murmurs caused by bacterial damage to the heart valves, kidney and liver problems.
This periodontal (around-the-tooth) disease starts when mineral salts from saliva plate out on the teeth and form plaque. If this plaque is not removed regularly, preferably daily, it mixes with food particles and bacteria in the mouth and forms the hard calculus. This calculus builds up on the teeth, causes irritation to the gums and eats away at the tooth’s support structures. It begins at the gum line, and with time the gum becomes red, swollen and irritated. This periodontal disease, if left untreated, causes a recession of the gums exposing tooth roots and eventually eroding away so there is nothing left to hold the tooth in place, and it falls out.
This is an extremely painful process that takes months to years to develop to the point the teeth are falling out.
Dogs especially will hide the pain and discomfort until the teeth fall out. By this time the bacteria living in the cesspool around the teeth and diseased gums have shed into the bloodstream and caused heart, liver, kidney and possibly lung damage. Prevention is the best treatment to assure periodontal disease never has the opportunity to flourish.
Regular checkups by your veterinarian will monitor when dental disease is becoming a problem, usually by the age of 2 or 3 years. Many products are available to help prevent and certainly to slow the progression of the disease. Most notable is Hill’s Rx food called Tarter Diet. This Tarter diet squeegees the teeth as the pet eats it and physically helps to remove the tarter. This food is specially engineered so that the fibers in the kibble run all in one direction. The kibble does not simply crush when bitten into, but rather acts to mechanically rub the teeth. Another very good non-prescription food that is similarly effective is Hill’s Science Diet Oral Care.
Tooth brushing daily is the gold standard for keeping a pets teeth clean. This requires time and dedication that many of us do not have with our busy lives.
Other products such as various oral rinses come in a squirt bottle with an extended plastic insert that is directed into the mouth and the liquid deposited to help kill oral bacteria. Some products such as Oxyfresh Pet Deodorizer are simply added to the pet’s drinking water daily, also to help kill bacteria. A newer product Biotene for pets is an active enzyme complex in a tube much like toothpaste. It is smeared onto the teeth with a finger or Q-tip and actually eats off the plaque and calculus. Used daily this can be very effective.
At some point, hopefully every two to three years if using good preventatives, or annually without any help, your pets teeth will need to be cleaned professionally by your veterinarian. She may want to start your pet on antibiotics prior to the procedure to help decrease the bacterial load in the blood.
Prior bloodwork will help to know everything is OK for your pet to be anesthetized for the procedure. A tube will be placed in the trachea while your pet sleeps so oxygen and anesthetic gas can be administered. A small cuff on the end of the tube be inflated during the procedure so bacteria will not be blown down the trachea into the lungs.
Gas anesthesia is as safe as for human surgery and the pet wakes up with clean, polished fluoride-treated teeth. You have just added years to the pets life expectancy with this one procedure.
Pat yourself on the back and save one for your pet. It will be there needing many more pats on the head and able to give you sweet kisses with clean teeth and no halitosis. Ask your veterinarian to check your pet’s teeth on each visit and to recommend which products would be best suited for you to use as a preventative against periodontal disease.
Celebrate National Pet Dental Health Month with your pet for many years to come.
DR. M. MARGARET KING, a longtime Edmond veterinarian, is a guest columnist. If you have any questions for her, send them to 1900 S. Bryant, Edmond, OK 73013.
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Preventing dental disease in pets adds years
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