Dental As Anything How to protect your pet’s teeth and gums.

Ensuring your pets have healthy teeth and gums makes it easier to get up close and personal with them, writes Roger Crosthwaite.

Most of us humans, if we’re honest, aren’t absolutely crazy about going to the dentist for our six-monthly check-up. But we do it anyway, because we know it’s necessary and that it will hopefully help us avoid worse things further down the track. Things involving needles and (gulp!) drills.

When it comes to our pets, guess what? It’s the same. A bit of pre-emptive care for our cats and dogs can save them from developing nasty dental complications.

The truth is, animals’ teeth can take quite a battering. Besides eating, there’s all that chewing of bones, catching of Frisbees and fetching of sticks to cope with, and they don’t have the ability to make a call for help when they’re experiencing discomfort from a tooth or gum problem.

So, next time you’re making your own dental appointment, how about making one for your four-legged companions with your vet. Ask the vet to give them a dental examination at the same time as their regular health check-up, to make sure that all is A-OK with the choppers.

In addition, there are a few simple things you can do at home to keep them dentally up to scratch, like watching out for any telltale signs that may indicate all is not right with your pet’s teeth. One of them is bad breath. Okay, so that’s relative – no one expects them to exhale lily-of-the-valley – but if an animal’s breath is particularly rancid, this could indicate potential problems in the mouth. Red and inflamed gums, excessive drooling, brown tartar stains on the teeth, bleeding gums or a reluctance to chew food properly can all point to trouble in the tooth department.

You can also head off future ills by giving pets’ teeth a weekly cleaning yourself. Pet toothbrushes, similar to the human variety but with smaller heads and softer bristles, are readily available from pet-supply stores. Alternatively, you can use a style of brush that fits over your finger, like a fingerstall, allowing you to gently massage your pet’s gums while you clean.

You can get animals to submit to regular teeth-cleaning sessions by gradually getting them used to the idea of having your bare fingers in their mouth, massaging their lips and gums. Then you can introduce the brush and, eventually, the toothpaste.

That’s right, toothpaste. Not your added-fluoride, ultra-whitening-for-that-Hollywood-smile human variety (which tends to upset their digestion), but specialist pet toothpaste in a variety of flavours, also available from pet stores.

The chicken sounds good. Not too sure about the peanut butter, though. Or you can simply make up a paste with baking soda. Help the process with rawhide chew toys that scrape away tartar and massage their gums as they chew.

Watch their diet, too. Human food doesn’t do canine or feline teeth any good, so disregard the pleading faces and avoid giving pets table scraps or sugary treats. There are dog and cat foods specifically formulated to improve their dental health, so ask your vet to recommend one. You’ll appreciate it every time your pet gives you a kiss goodnight. #