Looking After Your Pet’s Teeth At Home

Preventitive dental care for our pets is massively important - whether that is brushing their teeth or booking in for a routine descale and polish. These things will help to keep your pet’s teeth free from plaque and therefore bacteria, protecting the health of the teeth for longer.

Did you know that by 3 years old, 85% of our pet population will have periodontal disease of some kind. Advanced dental disease can also be responsible for heart and kidney disease. There are lots of things you can do at home to protect your pet’s teeth to help prevent extractions and promote their overall health.

As with asking our pets to do anything, little and often with positive rewards is the way to go! 

Here is a step-by-step guide to building up to a toothbrushing routine:

Day 1: Gently stroke the outside of your pet’s cheek with your finger and slowly lift up the lip for about 30 seconds. Reward, praise and treat

Day 2: Repeat as above, placing a small amount of toothpaste on the end of your finger and letting your pet sample it

Day 3: Repeat Day 2 but, this time, gently run your finger or finger toothbrush and a small amount of toothpaste over your pet’s teeth for 30-45 seconds. Reward, praise and treat

Day 4: Repeat Day 3, but for 45-60 second. Reward, praise and treat

Day 5: If all is going well, run your finger over the teeth for 30 seconds, then gently insert the toothbrush and run it over the teeth for 30 seconds

Day 6: Repeat Day 5, increasing the time by 30 seconds

Day 7: Aim to spend at least one minute on each side of the mouth.

Realistically, we cant brush our pet’s teeth as well as we might be able to brush our own. So it is likely that our pets will need a scale and polish at least once in their lifetime! This procedure has to be done under general anaesthetic in order for the treatment to be safe and carried out properly. We need to be able to access all surfaces of the teeth and get underneath the gumline to ensure that once they’ve been done, their teeth are healthy from root to tip!

If you have any questions about dental health, please speak to a member of our team!