Actually nothing is more important than maintain your pets’ dental health apart from all the preventive health measures you can take.

Tartar and gum disease produces more than just bad breath; it can also lead to diseases of the heart, liver, lungs and kidney. This page offers some details about how you can keep your pet’s breath fresh as well as maintain optimum health and longevity.

Every pet is recommended to be evaluated once yearly to determine if he/she is a candidate for dental prophylaxis (dental cleaning). Routine dental prophylaxis usually consists of:

• scaling
• polishing
• Fluoride treatment

Routine dental prophylaxis may also include tooth extraction and antibiotic therapy when necessary.

Since a pet will not open mouth wide the only way to do a thorough dental prophylaxis is to use anesthesia with your pets utmost safety in mind our doctors will choose the best and up to date anesthesia as dictated by age, weight and physical condition.

Good dental care is important because:

1. Diseased gums and teeth can lead to other diseases such as endocarditis (heart valve infection) and pyelonephritis (severe kidney infection)
2. It is much less expensive to maintain your pets’ oral health than it is to treat severe tooth and gum diseases later in life
3. If your pet now has halitosis or bad breath just imagine what it must be like for him or her to have to live with that odor in his mouth 24 hours a day
4. The natural development of tartar will lead to gingivitis and a painful gum infection leading to loss of appetite

Home dental care is needed as the most critical step in maintain the clean teeth and health gums-thereby lengthening the time until the next cleaning is needed. While not all the pets will allow routine brushing alternative suggestions are there with commercial products to add to your pets’ routine health care program.