Dental Cleaning Question

[Amber]

I don't want to Sally "under" for professional cleaning. As I have stated MANY times before (lol), she is a mixed breed... Pekingese, Poodle, and Shih-Tzu (Peekapoo/Shih-Tzu). I give her hard food and hard treats, but her vet says that she has tartar still from when she was at the shelter. The shelter mixed hard and wet food for their dogs.

My question is...how often do I brush Sally's teeth? I'm assuming it has something to do with breeds she has in her. I could be wrong though.

Also, should I get those tooth wipe things or a toothbrush and paste? I've never brushed my poodle's teeth either...I just fed her dry food from day one (except for when she was a puppy). I'm afraid to put my poodle "under" also, because I had to when she was fixed and the effects afterward were SCARY! Thanks so much!

[Grace Erick]

Hi Amber and everyone,

I'll just repeat what I've read and seen on sites aboug brushing. Funny, I never did ask the vet how often to clean her teeth. I read once a week, then I read twice a week, then I read once a week, but if you felt like doing it every day, then it can only help, so once to twice a week seems to be the consensus from dog books.

Now about hard food. Hard food can keep tartar from building more than canned food, but IT DOES NOT REMOVE TARTAR. I have heard this from Susan at DD and read it many times. So many people feed hard food, because they think it removes tartar, and I read the doggie biscuits do not remove tartar either.

Now Science Diet and Eukanuba, I believe have special foods now that do help remove tartar, but their food is bad, so you are better off feeding whatever hard or canned food you like and just brushing their teeth. I was given these huge balls of tartar control food, and I think I said already that I looked them up and they are Science Diet food, and the contents are really bad. The staff person said I could even feed her them as a regular diet, and when I saw what was in them, I felt like calling back and asking why she would suggest such a horrible product to feed my dog, but you know, it's that "why do vets sell Science Diet" article I read. They get incentives, gifts and the food at a discount.

It makes you wonder about your vet when they want your dog to eat crap, but if I had to judge a vet by what food they sold, I would have not have a vet to go to. The last one was pushing IVD canned food. I went home, looked it up and the first ingredient was potato, then the 3rd was "potato product", yuck!!!! The vet said my dog had an allergy, so it was good for her, AND SHE DOES NOT HAVE ALLERGIES, so the vets is just a freakin lying "B". At the time, I didn't know what was in the food until I got home and looked it up. At first, I thought, wow, a vet that doesn't sell Eukanuba or Science Diet. I bet this IVD stuff is good. I had never heard of it before. Surprise, it sucks! This vet had done the the pre-anesthesia blood test, so I took that info and found another vet and for other reasons too. She talked me into a full (geriatric) blood panel for $104. when they should just get the pre-anesthesia test that ranges from $38-$55.

Oh about the pads. My breeder friend uses them. I don't know if the brush is better than the pads or visa versa. This breeder taught her dogs to have a professional cleaning without anesthesia since she started them young. You can have your dog's teeth cleaned without anesthesia if they will stand for it. Then it would be really inexpensive to have it done. One place said $40.

It cost me $220. but this vet was not bill building. He could have added on an antibiotic shot for debris that goes down the dog's throat from the cleaning which my vet said would not happen, plus he did not prescribe pain meds and she had two extractions. She must have been okay, because she ate when she came home. Other vets will give an antibiotic shot or meds and pain medication as a routine thing.

[Grace Erick]

Hi Amber,

Your question made me call my vet, because why not get your vet's advise instead of a book's advise? To my surprise, but not really, they said to clean your dog's teeth every day, ugh!!!!!

I asked about the pads, and she said it depends what's on them, and if the ingredients or description says it contains enzymatic action, then those are good.

I also said I don't think even the tiny end of the brush or finger brush will get to the back teeth, and she said you can further use your finger to get back there, and that the dog's moving their tongue around will help to put the paste on the back teeth.

It pays to keep them clean, maybe you don't have to be as vigilent on bigger dogs? In the end, if a tooth needs to be pulled, the dog will have to be put under anesthesia, and some people will take that opportunity to have their dog's cleaned too, but gingervitis may have set in already. It's just like with people and can harm the dogs health, especially their heart like with people and cause them to not live as long as they could have.

[Amber]

Thanks so much, Grace!

I did find out that I should be brushing every day via the Petsmart website. I found that amazing, as you obviously did as well. I'm glad you found out about the tooth wipes though.

[Grace Erick]

Amber, I'm glad you asked the question. With small dogs, the vet also said there can be some crowding of teeth or teeth that stick out and will tend to get more tartar, so even vigilent cleaning can still result in having some bad teeth.

[Amber]

Yeah...thanks to the lovely puppy mills (being sarcastic...trust me), or irresponible breeders, whichever it was...among her breeds she's mixed with, she's not only part Shih-Tzu, but ALSO part Pekingese...so she has a underbite, I do believe...I get the terms confused sometimes. The lower jaw comes over the upper jaw a little.