March 2017 is Ashley Vets Dental Health Month!
This month is pet dental health month, which may have you wondering- is it really that important for my pet to have clean teeth?
Often dental health is thought of as a purely cosmetic concern, but in reality, the mouth is the gateway to your pet’s whole body.
Any disease in the mouth can lead to disease in the rest of their body.
So, what causes dental disease?
Minerals, saliva and bacteria among other things form a film over the teeth, which hardens and turns into tartar. This tartar is then a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The bacteria damage your pet’s gums and eat away at their teeth, often leading to a bad smell from the mouth. That smell is actually bacteria which have infected your pet’s mouth.
Why should we treat dental disease?
If you have ever had a toothache yourself, then you will understand that this mouth infection can be very painful for your pet. Sometimes pets with dental disease will drool, not want to eat properly, and be generally depressed however some pets do not make their distress obvious to us and will carry on regardless. Remember they can’t tell us what is wrong!
Not only can it be painful, but dental disease can affect your pet’s overall health. The bacteria in your pet’s mouth can easily travel to the rest of the body, where it can damage their heart and kidneys amongst other tissues. It can even contribute to heart and kidney failure.
By the time our pets are just a few years old, most of them will have some kind of dental disease. This is preventable with routine care, or can be helped with a general anaesthetic and veterinary treatment.
If you are concerned that your pet may be suffering from dental disease, please make an appointment with our vets to decide on a treatment plan or if you are not sure then come along this month and have a free dental check up with our nurse. It is a painful disease and it is damaging to your pet’s overall health.
Have a look at our guide on ‘How to tell if your pet has dental disease’ and have a check of your pet’s mouth today!
