When they are young, your pet’s teeth are white and beautiful. With proper dental hygiene and regular veterinary dental care, regular maintenance can help to make sure that your pet does not suffer infection, pain and disease.

During your pet’s 6 month or yearly physical exam, your vet will check its teeth. The vet can do a cursory. This is not a full dental exam and cannot always find pockets of infection between teeth and gums.

By starting early with home dental care and regular dental maintenance by your vet, your dog can live a healthier, more comfortable, longer life with beautiful, healthy gums and teeth.

You can do your part to keep your pet’s mouth healthy by brushing the canines and incisors with a brush and pet toothpaste, premolars can be maintained by brushing and providing dental care specific diet and dental chews. The molars at the back are best kept healthy with the aid of dental biscuits. The added advantage of dental chews, biscuits and dental beneficial diet are promotion of healthy gums, keeping the build-up of tartar to a minimum and freshened breath.

Things to look out for

If your pet has damaged teeth that need to be removed, it must be done. Such damage can mean further infection later.

Most dogs don’t have serious problems after tooth extractions. They can usually continue to chew with the remaining teeth. Even in the case of a dog that has no teeth, it is still not a problem. Dogs can eat quickly and do little chewing in the process. But it is better to avoid the expense and the pain your dog might experience, by practicing good oral hygiene at home and having a proper dental exam regularly.

Signs you can look for of dental disease in your dog are; bad breath, red or inflamed gums, swelling under the eye which could mean an abscess, pawing around the mouth, excessive drooling, bleeding or lumps in the gums, yellowing or darkening in color of teeth from plaque or tartar build-up or both and loss of appetite

Where to go

Go online and look for good reviews.  If you live in Syndey Australia, North Turramurra vet in Sydney is a great place to take your pet for veterinary needs.

We may not like going to the dentist, but we can easily sit through a dental exam. Your pet’s mouth is not structured in a way that makes a dental exam easy or comfortable. At Gordon Vet in North Shore, your vet will probably suggest a full dental during which your pet is anaesthetized, a full scale and polish is done and a specialized probe is used to check for infection, abscesses and gum damage. It is important to check for these things. If there is infection, diseased gums or damage to the ligaments that hold the tooth to the jawbone, it can sometimes be irreversible and might lead to extreme discomfort and pain for your dog and costly extractions.

The post Dental Every Six Months: Why Your Pet Should Have Its Teeth Checked Often appeared first on Ruby Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.