February is dental health month.  PetProducts360 is dedicated to the health and well begin of our pets.  So it is a good time to review the most prevalent dental disease in our dogs and cats; periodontal disease. Would you be surprised to know that periodontal disease is the most common disorder in dogs and cats affecting 80% of our pets over the age of three years.  Although veterinarians have long recognized the link between oral health and systemic health only recently has solid scientific data emerged linking the two. Periodontal disease is the number one reason for extraction of teeth in our pets especially in small breed dogs.

So what is periodontal disease? It is primarily an infection underneath the gum line closely associated with the periodontal ligament, which anchors the teeth to skull or jaw. Secondarily, the immune response of the body reacting to the infection resulting in destruction of that ligament and the surrounding bone and gingiva(gums). Basically pockets of pus surrounding the tooth.

What are the symptoms? Bad breath or any change in the odour of you pets breath. Other signs include quivering of the jaw, reluctance to play with toys, excessive salivation, reluctance to eat hard food, build up of tartar and reddening of the gums

Prevention of periodontal disease requires us to brush our pets teeth 4-5 times per week using a pet toothpaste.  There are chew toys and treats designed to clean the teeth. Choose the ones with the VOHC seal, which means they had clinical trials done on them to prove that these products decrease the level of dental disease. Once your pet has periodontal disease the only treatment is a professional periodontal treatment under general anesthesia. ( I try to avoid procedures that use general aneshesia since there is always a risk associated with this, especially as our pets age.)  This requires scaling under the gum line which is painful and cannot be accomplished on an awake animal.  This is the same process as used on humans except for the general anesthetic.  Speaking from personal experiance I would have preferred the general. The bottom line is, if your pet has periodontal disease it needs professional treatment. That treatment is only offered under the care of a veterinarian.

Teeth with significant longstanding periodontal disease and bone loss unfortunately need to be extracted in most cases. These teeth can usually be saved but require lots of home care and repeat visits. People who have periodontal disease probably visit their dentist every 3-6 months to save their teeth and our pets are no different.

Periodontal surgery involves cutting the gums away from the tooth. This allows deep pockets to be cleaned in a way that not possible from above the gum line.  The results can be amazing. Not every tooth should or can be salvaged and not every budget will allow us to save these teeth. Extraction of these teeth relieves the pet of chronic pain and source of a festering infection that can affect systemic health. The goal is a healthy pain free mouth and there is more than one way to achieve this goal. Brushing your pets teeth 4-5 times a week is great and also the least expensive way to help maintain a healthy pain free mouth.

We will soon be offering a number of dental items in our health care center.  Please watch for upcoming announcements.