Good dental care is as important for your pet as it is for you. Proper dental care prevents bad breath and periodontal disease.Periodontal Disease is the combination of dental calculus (tartar) and gingivitis (inflammation of the gums). Gingivitis is the gum’s response to the presence of calculus and results in painful gums and bad breath.

Periodontal Disease is very common in dogs and cats, and is the result of an unnatural diet (especially canned food and minced meat) combined with the fact that dogs and cats do not brush their teeth. Soft foods do not provide any abrasive cleaning action for the teeth, allowing plaque and then calculus to develop on the teeth. If not treated, periodontal disease results in infection and destruction of the tooth’s attachment to the jaw. Teeth that reach this point cannot be salvaged and will be lost forever…..

Cat with advanced periodontal disease

Treatment of periodontal disease involves 2 phases:

1. Dental work- just like when you go to the dentist for a check up and clean, most dog’s and cats also require exactly the same treatment. But, as dogs and cats will not sit up in the dentist chair and open their mouths, they do require general anaesthesia. At Port Macquarie Veterinary Hospital  your pet’s teeth will all be ultrasonically scaled and polished with state of the art veterinary dental equipment.
   
   

   Dog with advanced periodontal disease	After extraction of severely affected teeth, then a scale and polish of remaining teeth.

   
   
   
2. Prevention – this is the most important part! There are several ways of doing this and not all dogs and cats will need the same level of care.
   Dogs and cats are naturally prey animals and thus their teeth are designed for chewing through raw meat and bones. Therefore raw meat and bones should form a large part of your pet’s diet, such as raw chicken necks and wings for small dogs, and large bones such as lamb shanks for large dogs, A good quality dry food is also helpful to encourage chewing.
   Other useful chewing objects include “Schmackos”, pigs’ ears, “Dentabones”, “Greenies”, and anything similar.
   This may be all that is needed for many pets, but some require special attention. Brushing your pet’s teeth is an excellent way of preventing periodontal disease, but it is not possible with every dog. There are specially made brushes and tooth pastes available for dogs, so please ask the vet for more information.
   Special teeth-cleaning diets exist, such as “Hill’s Oral Care” and “Hill’s t/d”. These are scientifically designed fibrous dry foods, which have a cleaning action above that of the average dry food.