National Pet Dental Health Month?

In doing some reading for this month’s posts, I came across a listing of National Pet Holidays.  Did you know January 14 was National Dress Up Your Pet Day, February 23 is National Dog Biscuit Day, and May 30 is Hug Your Cat Day?  These may seem silly or trivial, but there are many national pet “holidays” focused on more serious problems, too:  May 13 to 19 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week and all of April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month.  What I was after, and what I think is really important – so important we’re going to devote several posts to it – is Pet Dental Health Month. Pet Dental Health Month is just around the corner in February. When I was in veterinary school, teeth and the oral health of animals was virtually ignored.  Our dental course was an elective – we weren’t required to take it – and lasted a mere 4 hours.  Compare that to the 70 hours spent studying in fine detail the Krebs or Calvin cycle and other minutia of biochemistry, information I rarely draw on in day to day decision making as a practicing veterinarian.  Fortunately, times have changed and we now recognize how common dental disease is and how significantly disease in the mouth impacts your pet’s overall health.  

So, why do we care about the teeth and disease in the mouth?

The simple answer is, without proper dental care EVERY SINGLE pet we see will develop dental disease at some point in their life.  In fact, according to the American Veterinary Dental Society, up to 85% of dogs have some degree of dental disease by 4 years of age.  Even this young, I have seen advanced periodontal disease in many of our patients.  That means that at what should be the prime of their life, many dogs and cats are already experiencing the discomfort that is common with dental disease.  We also care because of how dental disease can affect your pet as a whole.  A report released by the Surgeon General back in 2000 sums it up nicely: “The terms oral health and general health should not be interpreted as separate entities” and “you cannot be healthy without oral health.”  While the report was aimed at humans, the same holds just as true for our pets. Bacteria from inflamed, infected gums don’t stay in the mouth; they enter the blood stream and travel throughout the body.  Caught in time, this infection is treatable, but over time, potentially irreversible damage can occur to your pet’s vital organs.  Evidence is mounting about the association between infection and inflammation in the mouth and diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and chronic kidney disease.  Since these three diseases are common in pets as they age, it makes sense to take care of the mouth as best we can.  

Last week, Dr. Mike extracted nine teeth from an older cat.  

We call clients the night of the procedure to answer questions and address concerns they may have; when our technician followed up with this cat’s owner, the owner was thrilled.  After a long day of anesthesia and oral surgery, the cat had arrived home, ate an entire can of food, and was resting comfortably.  When I called her the next day, she said “I have a kitten again!”  The cat was more playful than the owner had seen in years.  I love hearing these stories!  It’s exactly why I care about teeth and disease in the mouth.  By improving the health of the mouth, we can dramatically improve our patient’s quality of life. Behavioral changes caused by dental pain often go unnoticed because of the gradual onset of dental disease. Once we eliminate the dental pain, the changes can be very dramatic!

Stay tuned and next week we’ll talk about dental disease and prevention!