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By age 3, 80% of dogs and 70% of cats show signs of oral disease, according to the American Veterinary Dental Society.
Adult dogs have 42 permanent teeth.
Cats have 30.
(People are only slightly superior than cats and have 32 teeth.)
One of the biggest health threats posed by periodontal disease is infection of the heart valves…one of the more common problems of older dogs and cats.
In fact, a University of Minnesota – School of Public Health – found that gum disease is an early warning sign of cardio-vascular disease.
These findings have been confirmed by The American Heart Association
(americanheart.org)
and The American Acedemy of Periodontology (www.perio.org).
“The battle ground for periodontal disease is in the gingival sulcus, a location the clinician cannot visualize.”
Most practices offer dental cleaning and polishing services…but these are often offered too late…after the bone substructure is already permanently damaged.
Diagnosing early is the key and diagnostic imaging is the best way to detect early bone loss and disease before it’s obvious on visual inspection.
Advising people to allow dental x-rays of their pets even when on examination they appear healthy is difficult and often makes people wonder if the vet is recommending unnecessary procedures just to make money.
Nonetheless, some progressive vets are making such recommendations … and they are justified in doing so…. on the grounds that we won’t detect periodontal disease in the early stages before it’s obvious unless we (that means you) spend the money on radiographs.
Most small, general practice veterinary clinics don’t yet have x-ray units designed just for dental radiographs.
It’s mostly a matter of the benefits not yet being worth the costs and trouble… which are considerable unless they can be spread out a lot of patients.
Good oral health care is among the top things you can do for your pet to improve both the quality and length of your pet’s life expectancy. (The other top things are: Good nutrition, a safe environment, regular check ups and vaccinations, effective parasite control, and lots of love and exercise.)
Genetics is probably the biggest factor in dental health.
If, for genetic reasons, your cat or dog has hard enamel and firm, healthy gums...it probably will have very little trouble until late middle age.
On the other hand, if your pet has soft gums or thin enamel, you can expect trouble; bad breath, a tender mouth, mild chronic discomfort, gum infections and ulcers, and the risk of chronic bacterial absorption leading to general disease.
This is interesting:
The health of the Momma during the fetal development stage of the teeth buds and gum tissue. If the momma was malnurished, wormy, or just happened to have a high fever during the critical stage of pregnancy, it's possible that the baby's enamel, dentin, or gums will be subnormal and prone to problems.
Oral Hygiene.
Just as important for pets as for humans if you desire the benefits of good oral health.
Diet. Yes, diet is a factor...just not as big of one as many of us were led to believe.
Genetics, as mentioned above, plays a bigger role.
And feeding dry food versus canned food may not make much difference.
Catching the problem early enough to prevent permanent gum damage is important.
This is yet another reason for bringing your pet in for yearly checkups.
Good veterinarians routinely check the gums and dental health of your pet and will recommend appropriate dental care if needed.
Once the gums are all spongy and soft from chronic disease, they often never recover ... Don't skip periodic exams.
Here's a subject I know very little about, really, but some new age veterinarians think that teeth problems are a major cause of general disease and ill health because of ther relationship to acupunture meridians
Perhaps I will be able to tell you more about this subject soon...but if true, it just supports the argument that dental health is very important.
A Special Comment: When some people think of dentistry on their dog or cat, what comes to mind is just scraping off the tarter. Something some people do with a screw driver or other tool .... or that the groomer might do for free! This procedure DOES make the teeth look better, but three big problems:
A. You might be doing more harm than good ... inexperineced scraping leaves etches in the enamel which allow future plaque and tarter to bond much faster and easier to the enamel.
B. The more important problem is hidden under the gums...very hard to reach without excessive force without anesthesia. An ultrasound machine does a
beautiful job of cleaning under gums... but anesthesia is required; something a groomer shouldn't be doing.
C. Tarter build-up is only the most obvious problem. Attention to detail is important if you want or expect a quality result.
The basic problem is that once the gums are inflammed, they become a MAIN SOURCE of bacterial absorption into the blood stream.
This bacterial invasion into the blood affects the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the joints, the vasuclar system, and especially the immune system. With this in mind, it's possible that gum disease may be the most serious disease of all !
Here's what to expect if your Pet had Dental Problems at Our Hospital
(Of course, other Veterinarians might do things differently)
EXAM & History: We will be using our senses and experience to look, feel, and smell for gum inflammation, ulcers of the cheek or tongue, bad odors, raised gums, gum pockets, tarter build up, pain, exposed dentin, cavities, and, of course, loose teeth.
We will also be aware of the near by sinuses and facial swellings, neural twitches, and lymph nodes. We know that diseases like diabetes and kidney disease affect the gums, so we will be looking for clues that might suggest these problems.
Sometimes it will be necessary to sedate or anesthetize a patient to allow a close exam and to carefully probe each tooth.
Often it will be appropriate to do some diagnostic work before or along with the dental exam & treatment:
Lab tests that we and other vets might recommend:
1. First of all, if dental work is needed, in most cases the patient will need to be anesthetized to allow us to do what we need to do. More and more vets are requiring that general blood work be done prior to any anesthesia to help detect hidden kidney, liver, anemia, and other problems.
If you love your pet enough to bring it to a veterinarian for dentistry, then nobody wants it to die under anesthesia because we didn't take the expense and trouble to first test it for some of the more common potential problems. This is especially true for older pets.
At our clinic, we give you the choice:
A. No testing...but you understand potential increased risk involved.
B. Basic testing for the most common problems associated with anesthetic risk:
This means screening tests for Liver disease, Kidney disease, Anemia, and Diabetes.
C. More through testing; a complete blood count and chemistry & electrolyte profile typical of what is done for humans in modern hospitals.
2. Some of these same and other tests might also be needed or advisable not just for anesthesia safety but because they are related to the actual oral-dental problem. For example, if ulcers are found in a cat's mouth, we might be suspicious of the following:
Leukemia, Feline Aids, Kidney disease, Bacteremia or viremia, liver disease, or thyroid disease.
3. Radiographs are often appropriate...certainly if with dental probing we detect deep gum sockets or lysed bone or suspect jaw cancer.
Some vets would argue that radiographs are always appropriate in order to do the very best job possible. For the same reason human dentists insist on x-rays which is to spot hard to detect problems early.
The Actual Dentistry
Once we have our patient safely anesthesized, we clean and probe every tooth with an ultra-sound scaler and dental probes. We extract rotten, loose, or abscessed teeth. Other, more advanced veterinarians, might offer root canals, bridge work, crowns, and so forth if you're will to pay for such work in order to save a tooth that would otherwise be extracted.
We do minor oral surgery to gums if needed. Then we polish the enamel and apply flouride which hardens the enamel.
And finally, in many cases, we recommend then sealing the teeth with the new OraVet dental sealants now available. (Discussed elsewhere on this page)
New in 2007: Pfizer has introduced a VACCINE that prevents or reduces gum infection. This vaccine is not a replacement for dentistry ... it doesn't remove tarter, for example ... but it does help and I highly recommend it for pets with soft, spongy gums or outright gum disease.
Additional Considerations:
-Difficult or complicated extractions or gum surgery
-Pre and/or post dental antibiotics
-Referral to a dental specialist for fillings, crowns, false teeth, orthodontics, and other re-construction work if advisable.
Plus, we may recommend follow up care at home which might include:
OralGel with Vitamin C
CHX or CET toothpaste or chews
Antioxidants for gum health
Chlorophyll tabs for bad breath
"Greenies"
T/D diet, perhaps as treats
Other brands or types of dental care that your vet perfers
How often should dental cleaning be done?
It all depends on the age and oral health of the individual patient.
Trust your vet to give you an honest evaluation during your periodic exams.
For those older patients with soft gums and rapid tarter build-up, it's not unusual to recommend dentistry on a yearly basis or even every 6 months.
And of course, if you go to the effort of using the newer oral hygiene products at home, you can often greatly extend the period between professional cleaning.
