A Toothy Issue
Let’s start with a quick scenario (background music: the theme to Jaws): Your beloved pet is sitting on or next to you; they are loving all the attention and go to give you a little love in the form of licking your face. Your response is:
a) To move your face away from them as quickly as possible because of the cloud of bad breath coming out.
b) To move in with the pet-approved toothpaste and brush or a dental cleaning pad to perform your almost nightly ritual with your pet
c) To shove the pet off of you or the couch because you know that fish breath or foul things (from the yard or kitty litter box) have recently been consumed.
A perfect answer is b, but honestly sometimes we pet owners are too tired to fight with the pet to clean their teeth or to even keep our own eyes open to watch the telly at night.
The New Year isn’t very old yet, so you still have an opportunity to make a commitment to take better care of your own and your pet’s or pets’ teeth and oral health in the coming year.
By now, you may have started to roll your eyes and think, “great, another pet dental article.” Well, yes, but we veterinarians revisit dental care regularly because you and we can make a significant contribution to maintaining a pet’s health by taking regular and good care of their mouth.
In the perfect world, us human beings are getting our teeth cleaned every six months by a dental hygienist. Because of that regular, thorough cleaning, daily home care and regular examinations and x-rays of our teeth by our dentists, our mouths are in pretty good shape. More of us will have our teeth in old age than did or do our parents.
In contrast, our pets are physiologically and, in the mouth, physically aging the equivalent of 2.5 to three years in every six months of “human time.” Imagine if you only brushed your teeth once every 3 months. Would you have a healthy mouth?
February is National Pet Dental Health Month and it represents a chance to take advantage of your veterinarian’s extra focus on dental health for education and some sort of great deal on a professional veterinary dental cleaning. We say the every month is dental health month, but we try to make February just a little bigger so that you can have a pet with sweeter breath at home.
And, challenge yourself to find out whether you can acclimate your pet to regular brushing with pet-approved toothpaste or what new options are available in food or water additives, treats or other products for home care to help you have an easier time.
Be your pet’s oral health super hero – vanquish stinky breath for the now and the long-term health of your best furry friend or friends.
Dr. Margot can be reached at parkhillvet.com