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Learning your Dog’s Mouth: Oh How They Chew!
Posted on February 21, 2012 by Dr. Denette Cooke
With February being Dental Health Month for the veterinary profession, I thought I’d write a few thoughts down for you to reference.
Dental disease includes plague and tartar accumulation, bad breath (halitosis), gum infection and inflammation (gingivitis). Oral health includes the health and well being of all the structures of mouth. This includes the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the salivary ducts, the tonsils, and any structure we can see and inspect when the pet is under anesthesia.
When we examine a pet in the exam room, we are very limited in the ability to do a thorough oral exam due to the pet’s unwillingness to share all aspects of their mouths. So a thorough oral exam and evaluation of the health of the teeth and gums, can only be accomplished from having the pet under anesthesia to probe the gingival pockets, extend the tongue out of the mouth to look under it and back down the throat, etc. Dogs and cats get tumors of their mouths including the gums, the tongue, and the boney arcade that hold the teeth.
With that being said, periodic dental cleanings and oral exams are a must. However our goal is not to place your pet under anesthesia frequently to accomplish this health screen. Our goal is to prevent the problem through out the pet’s life time and thereby minimizing dental disease from starting in the first place. Human dentists are the only health care professionals who have succeeded in getting the American consciousness on prevention!! A dental cleaning and exam by our dentist every 6 months sure beats a root canal every other year!
If you have a puppy or kitten, start with good preventative measures for dental health early in it’s life. This includes looking in the mouth frequently to learn your pet’s mouth, brushing the teeth, smelling the breath, and offering dental chews or treats that lessen the accumulation of plague which leads to tartar.
We may assess them with a dental cleaning and oral health exam under anesthesia when they are between 3 to 6 years of age, again at 7 to 10 years of age, and then hopefully, your pet has reached their senior years with healthy teeth! Ideally we want our seniors to not be concerned with dental disease at all when they are 12 + years of age! Don’t get me wrong, we are very comfortable with senior pets under anesthesia to treat a nasty infected mouth that is robbing these pets of quality of life by spreading advanced disease through out their bodies. My clients are never ‘excited’ to place their pets under anesthesia and have worries and concerns with the procedure. Anesthesia is our biggest risk with every surgical procedure…but it is an extremely small negligible worry statistically. With a human-like anesthetic protocol of quality testing prior to the procedure, intravenous fluid support during and after the procedure, and advanced monitoring of blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart and respiratory rate….. this out patient dentistry is routine!
Slab fracture of Premolar 4 revealing hole to pulp chamber
This photo is that of a young healthy chewing Dachshund. Her level of dental disease such as tartar and gingivitis was overall not that bad. What was bad, was that she had a major painful fracture of the largest chewing tooth in her head!
Dogs can fracture their teeth on ANYTHING hard! Sticks, mulch, Greenies, Nylabones, and even ice has been reported.
The veterinary dentists (yes…4 years of veterinary school and then an internship and residency in veterinary dentistry for another 4 years) recommend offering dental treats that ‘give’ some when chewed. You will find some veterinary dentists that don’t like Greenies (http://www.greenies.com/en_US/Products/DentalChew.aspx) because they have been known to fracture teeth or cause esophageal rupture. And then again some veterinary dentists swear by them! There has been a recommendation by some of the veterinarians (referenced from ‘Dentistry Board from the Veterinary Information Network) to heat them in the microwave for a short time to soften them a bit so that you can bend them. This seems to help decrease the chance of a fracture.
The truth is likley that some dogs, like certain people, are genetically prone to weaker teeth. I would never want to find out that my dogs have fractured the largest chewing tooth in their head (the upper premolar 4) because there is ‘no saving’ that tooth. It needs to come out. That then robs them of a great past time….’murdering and chewing’.
I don’t feed my dogs Greenies or bones. Instead they eat, in my opinion, the best object for canine health, CET Hextra Chews (http://www.virbacvet.com/products/DentalHealth/Chews/C.E.T.HextraPremiumChewsforDogs.aspx). These chews are soft and give. They are sized appropriate raw hide that has been impregnated with an antibacterial rinse. So when they are ‘murdering and chewing’ they are flossing those teeth! I feed them one daily.
Think about your ‘murdering chewing’ wolf in the back yard…if you don’t offer that dog something to ‘murder’ he or she will find their own item to murder! So please…help yourself by offering a great chew product 1) keeps teeth clean 2) lessens the expense on dental cleanings and frequency of them 3) keeps your dog happy so he doesn’t need to chew objects in the yard as much and 4) save your dog’s health and welfare by not allowing fractures and dental disease to rob them of great quality of life! Murder on!
Words of caution! Always watch your dog when chewing on anything! Always read the ‘fine print’ on the bag! Feed size appropriate chews. Feed the chews after they are quiet and calm and their stomachs are full from a meal! That way they will take their time to enjoy the chewing and get the most use out of it! The more they get to enjoy it, the slower they chew it!
More words of caution! Sometimes what you think they are are just chewing and spitting out….they are eating. We have removed common yard debris from the intestines and stomachs of dogs such as: sticks, rocks, and nuts. Objects that fracture teeth: mulch, sticks, rocks, any hard substrate, Greenies (not soften enough to give), ice, etc.
Sorry for the wordy blog! I just can’t help it! Enjoy!
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