By Stuart Kellogg - Staff Writer
It's the same lecture you get from your own dentist: If food collects between the teeth, it soon combines with saliva and bacteria to form plaque, which then hardens into tartar. This, in turn, creates pockets of infection at the gum line, causing the teeth to loosen in their sockets of gum and bone.
The result: tooth loss. It's the same old lecture, except that with a dog or cat, the patient can't understand a word the dentist is saying. It's up to the owner to pay attention and act. According to Dr. Shafeeq Ahmed of the Hesperia Animal Hospital, dental hygiene is more than avoiding "dog breath" and jack-o'-lantern smiles. Ignore your pet's teeth and gums, and bacteria can enter the bloodstream, leading to heart valve disease, kidney disease and chronic lung disease. A tooth loosened by fighting or by chewing on wood or cow-hoof "treats" can result in a painful abscess.
What's to do? for one thing, you can brush your pet's teeth, not so silly a notion - nor as impossible - as that may sound. It's best to start when your pet is a puppy or kitten, but even a grown animal can learn to tolerate the practice. to begin, Ahmed says, simply rub your naked finger along the gum line. Then reward your pet with a treat. Graduate to rubbing with gauze or terry cloth, and soon your pet will tolerate a soft toothbrush and veterinary toothpaste.
Never use human toothpaste: Your pet will "resent" the foaming action, which will also upset its stomach. Concentrate on cleaning the outside of the teeth (the side that touches the cheek). Cat or dog, your pet's tongue is rough enough to polish the inside of the teeth. "Nowadays," Ahmed says, "maybe 10 percent of our clients claim they brush their pets' teeth. I wish that figure were higher." but just as the most diligent human tooth-brusher ought to have regular professional cleanings, so, too, should pets.
Ahmed recommends a minimum of one dental checkup a year. To do a deep cleaning (ultrasonic tartar control, followed by polishing with the same paste used on human patients), the pet must be anesthetized. This is not only to keep fractious patients from biting, but because the molars, susceptible to abscesses, require special attention. while the pet is under, Ahmed seizes the moment to examine its ears and throat, clip its nails and check for tumors anywhere on the body. A dog may even be groomed while sedated.
(Likewise, if a dog or cat comes to the hospital for non-dental surgery, Ahmed takes advantage of the sedation to clean the animal's teeth.) While working on Daisy, a real sweetheart, veterinary technician Brian Piel takes before and after photos of her choppers. Using the same flexible, lighted wand, he looks in her throat and deep inside her ears. Had he found foxtails in Daisy's ears, Piel could have sent channel forceps down through the tube to extract the burr. For extensive dental procedures, such as caps, dogs are referred to a human dentist - an image almost too good to be true.
According to Ahmed, a dog's permanent teeth come in between 4 and 6 months of age, a cat's at about 3 months. Young pets should be checked to see that their baby teeth are falling out properly and that two teeth aren't trying to grow where only one will fit (the vet can remove the extra tooth).
For a young dog, an annual dental checkup at the Hesperia Animal Hospital costs between $60 and $90. Geriatric dogs cost more, Piel says, because they're hooked up to an IV catheter and IV fluids, "just in case." Among dogs, old age starts at 8 years - except for St. Bernards and Great Danes, considered geriatric at 6. By now Daisy is in recovery room, where she will wake up in 15 to 20 minutes. Ahmed explains that owners are not allowed to be present "because as dogs wake up, they may hallucinate or scream - especially huskies and beagles, even though they aren't in pain."
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