Tips for Tartar Removal in Dogs

Content

• What is tartar and what kind of dogs are more prone to it
• What are the consequences of tartar on dogs?
• Prevent tartar in dogs
• Advice to prevent and eliminate tartar from your dog

Have you ever noticed bad breath in your dog? Did you see stains and dirt on your teeth? If so, then your dog has accumulated tartar.

If you want to find out about this problem, some way to prevent it and especially to know some Tips for Tartar Removal in Dogs, continue reading this PeritoAnimal article and discover the importance of your pet's oral health.

What is tartar and what kind of dogs are more prone to it

The same thing happens in dogs' mouths as in people's mouths, every day their teeth are filled with bacteria that form plaque. In addition to this plate, there are also various food remains that decompose and mineral salts daily. Throughout the life of the animal, all this accumulates and, together, it ends up forming calculations known as tartar. Tartar mainly accumulates in the space between the gum and the tooth. From then on, it spreads and affects the rest of the oral structures, which can lead to infections and secondary diseases.

When our dog already has tartar, it is impossible to get rid of it with diet and brushing his teeth, so it is preferable to act preventively avoiding the formation of tartar. The only really efficient way that offers a thorough solution to the problem is mouth cleaning, like the one we do at the dentist, by a professional veterinarian.

All dogs can have tartar, but some types of dogs are more prone to it:

• In the small size and toy breeds, dental enamel is of a poorer quality in addition to having smaller teeth together, something that makes normal cleaning difficult, so the process of tartar formation is faster.
• You brachycephalic dogs, due to the shape of their skull and jaw, their teeth are close together and this favors the formation of tartar and makes cleaning difficult.
• Regardless of race, the dogs over 5 years old they start to get tartar if we don't avoid it.

What are the consequences of tartar on dogs?

There are many consequences that the accumulation of tartar has on our dog's health. Below, we show you the most direct and important ones:

• The first problem that presents itself is the bad breath or halitosis: It produces a bad odor in the dog's mouth that can sometimes be detected from a distance and is usually very annoying, but be aware that this is a symptom of tartar formation and other possible diseases. Therefore, you should consult your veterinarian and offer your furry friend some way to eliminate bad breath and prevent tartar.
• THE gingivitis is another problem derived from the formation of tartar in our pets' mouths. The gums become red, inflamed and gradually retract and leave the tooth root exposed. The fact that the tooth root is uncovered causes the tooth bone to deteriorate and reabsorb, weakening the union of the tooth piece with the mandible or maxilla and facilitating the loss of this piece.
• THE periodontal disease: If tartar is not prevented, periodontal disease can occur, which starts with its formation. It starts with gingivitis and halitosis and then the process progresses to the rest of the structures of the mouth (tooth roots, palate, jaw, jaw, etc). Finally, there is the loss of the affected tooth pieces and the infection of the gums. These infections often end up in abscess formations that can continue advancing into the tissues of the mouth, eventually affecting your pet's eyes and nose. The only way to solve this disease is for our trusted veterinarian to give our puppy a professional cleaning of the mouth, in addition to administering an antibiotic treatment.
• This series of dental problems in animals can result in serious infections life-threatening and can even result in heart, kidney, bowel and liver problems.

Prevent tartar in dogs

As in the case of people, in our canine companions we can also prevent tartar and its consequences. Like? As with our mouth, following some oral hygiene rules.

It is important that you try to prevent this problem, this way you will avoid a period of pain, inflammation and bleeding of the gums, bad breath and difficulty in eating and playing with your favorite toys.

We can prevent tartar with:

• One daily brushing of our dog's teeth. It is very important to get them used from puppies to facilitate the process and choose a type of brush and toothpaste suitable for each dog.
• Some toys, bones, cookies and special rations that you can chew and keep your mouth clean for a longer time. These prizes in the form of bones, feed, biscuits, bars, strips and toys, are composed of abrasive elements for bacterial plaque that help to remove tartar from the surface of the teeth.
• One good physical health will always help to prevent possible infections. You will achieve this good physical health based on proper nutrition and exercise.

In case you cannot prevent tartar and it still appears, we can still prevent periodontal disease. When you detect that there is an accumulation of tartar impossible to eliminate with a normal brushing, you should consult your veterinarian for a mouth cleaning of our pet. In case you are already suffering from periodontal disease, our pet will also undergo this oral cleaning process to be able to resolve this disease.

This cleaning of animals must always be carried out under general anesthesia with an anesthesiologist, a veterinary assistant and a veterinarian who performs professional mouth cleaning. With this process, the tartar will be eliminated with a special instrument such as an ultrasound, which breaks the tartar without damaging the tooth enamel.

In cases of advanced periodontal disease, tooth pieces are usually lost with the dental cleaning process, but not because of the cleaning action on the teeth, but because they are usually pieces that had already separated from the maxilla or mandible, but due to the excess tartar will stick together rather than fall off. As these pieces are no longer functional and are retained, they can cause the formation of abscesses and infections.

It is also very important as a prevention, that if we observe any of the following signs in our furry companion let's take him to the vet:

• Scratch your face or mouth and you can't see anything that might be bothering you.
• Excessive bad breath. It is important to know that halitosis is not just caused by tartar and periodontal disease. It will be essential to consult the veterinarian to rule out other possible diseases such as diabetes, kidney problems or parasitosis, among others.
• Stop eating or change your eating habits and chew.
• Abundant salivation.
• Tooth loss without realizing it.
• Depression: unwillingness to walk, play, eat, etc.
• Poor quality teeth with discoloration or breakage.
• Tartar along the edge of the gum.
• Inflamed, red and bleeding gums.
• Tall or polyps inside the mouth.
• Tall under the eyes, where the muzzle begins.

Advice to prevent and eliminate tartar from your dog

Finally, at PeritoAnimal we want to give you some advice to help you with your puppy's oral hygiene, preventing and eliminating tartar:

• Fix bad eating habits of your dog that may favor the formation of tartar. The main cause of tartar formation is an excess of homemade food and soft food such as pâtés. This type of food gets very easily on teeth and gums. Therefore, the most suitable for taking care of the mouth is dry food or feed that scratches the tooth surface with each bite, helping to clean them and leaving much less residue.
• Help your puppy to get used to the daily brushing of teeth from a puppy. The ideal is to do it daily, but it has been shown that with a minimum of three times a week most puppies can prevent tartar.

Below, we tell you the simplest process to achieve get your puppy used to brushing:

From an early age, apply a sterilized gauze wrapped around your finger every day on the surface of the teeth with a little water. Later on, start showing him the brush so that he can become familiar with it. Then you can start using the brush instead of the sterile gauze and you can use special toothpaste for dogs. Since they swallow it, it must be special for them and you must never give it to humans (you must especially avoid the fluorine that is toxic to them), so we will avoid many problems, including stomach ulcers.

In addition, there are different flavors of toothpaste that are special for them, which will make your mouth easier to clean by giving you a taste that you like. Instead of toothpaste, Chlorhexidine can be used on sale in veterinary clinics and in some specialized stores. Chlorhexidine is equivalent to our mouthwash that cleans, disinfects and softens the first calculus of tartar, so we can remove them more easily with the brush. It may be that at first your puppy does not like brushing his teeth and that it costs him, but be patient as eventually he will become habitual. It is recommended that at first brushing shorter and little by little increase the time.

• Buy or create toys and special prizes which, in addition to entertaining your pet, will help keep your mouth healthy. For example, in the case of toys, the ones made with ropes are very practical. Dogs biting them clean their teeth in the same way as when we floss. In addition, your dog will also like cookies and other types of prizes that have special components for the care of the mouth.
• Professional Mouth Cleaning often ends up being necessary despite correct oral hygiene. As we explained before, the only difference from the cleaning that our dentist does to us is the general anesthesia, which becomes essential for our furry companions as they will not sit still with their mouth open and thus avoid possible damage and completely unnecessary fears. .
• Enjoy general anesthesia. As we obviously never like to submit our furry companions to general anesthesia that may seem unnecessary to us, we recommend that professional cleanings be attempted at the same time as any necessary surgery. For example, whenever the veterinarian does not see serious contraindications, if we think about sterilizing our dog, we can use the same anesthesia to take care of dental hygiene.

This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.