The Smiling Tooth
practical dental care for dogs and cats
A healthy mouth smells better.
Does it smell pretty awful when your dog breathes in your face? That’s a clue there may be something pretty awful going on in his mouth.
A healthy mouth feels better.
Even if you are very perceptive, you probably won’t notice your pet’s toothache unless one side of the mouth hurts more than the other, making him or her chew only on one side. Because dental problems develop gradually, it is easy to miss the other signs, like reluctance to eat or lack of activity, until things are pretty bad.
Pets with healthy mouths live longer.
Pets with healthy teeth and gums enjoy their lives more. They are happier and play more. They get more exercise. Twenty years ago, we expected large breed dogs to live nine or ten years. Today, with luck, it’s reasonable to expect eleven to thirteen years. Some of it of course, is better nutrition and medical care. Much of it I think, is improved dental health. Without dental attention, most dogs have infected smelly mouths by the time they are six or seven. Twenty four hours a day, that infection sheds bacteria into the bloodstream. Is that fatal? Of course not. The body is good at dealing with this kind of thing, but it stresses the immune system. As time goes on the bacterial load worsens and with age the immune system becomes progressively less competent. By eight or nine we have a old failing dog with kidney disease, liver problems and a mouth that can be salvaged only by removing most of the teeth. That doesn’t have to happen.
Courtesy of http://www.placervillepet.com
