As your trusted vet team, we want to reassure you that when we recommend a dental clean for your pet, it’s because we think they’ll really benefit from it!
Good dental condition is so important for your pet’s quality of life and their general health.
What is dental disease?
Classic “dental disease” refers to the disease process that occurs when teeth aren’t regularly brushed. It starts with a build-up of plaque – a gooey film containing bacteria – on the surface of your pet’s teeth. If it isn’t cleaned off, plaque then turns to tartar – a hard brown layer stuck firmly to your pet’s teeth. This traps bacteria, which leads to inflammation and infection of the surrounding gum and jaw tissues (periodontal disease), eventually causing permanent damage to teeth.
What does dental disease look like?
Dental disease appears as:
- A yellow or brown accumulation on your pet’s teeth
- Red gum areas (compared to the usual salmon pink colour)
- Discomfort when being touched around the mouth
- Smell from the mouth
- Loose or missing teeth
Why should we prevent periodontal disease?
Periodontal disease causes permanent damage to your pet’s gum tissues, which eventually leads to the loss of affected teeth. The associated inflammation and infection are also painful for your pet, over months to years. If you’ve ever had dental pain, you’ll know just how much this can affect you!
Infection in the mouth can also release bacteria into the bloodstream, affecting the health of distant organs such as the heart, kidneys and liver.
Lastly, if your pet has a clean mouth, it’s going to make any cuddles and licks from them a lot more pleasant (and less smelly!) for you.
For this reason, we highly recommend a health check-up for every pet every 6-12 months, where (among other things) we can check their dental health! And that’s the tooth!