Natural Pet Health

Caring for your dog’s teeth is your responsibility. On the face of it may appear to be something that is not so necessary, but the fact is that your pet needs as much dental care as you do. The basic rule that prevention is better than cure applies as much to dog teeth as it does to any other pet health issue.

Without proper precautions there is a possibility of relatively minor problems ending up as major health issues over time. These simple problems in the mouth tend to aggravate into dental diseases. Plaque can mineralize within a couple of days after coming in contact with saliva and convert to tartar that sticks strongly to the gums.

Dog owners have to get accustomed to normal dog breath. At the same time, dog bad breath can become intolerable at times.

Canine bad breath is normally a result of improper dental care. Most dog owners tend to ignore dental care while grooming. Lack of proper dental care results in food particles, bone splinters and other substances that remain stuck between the teeth and gums causing decay over a period of time.

The resultant abscesses and inflammation becomes a welcome home for bacteria. Untended, they invite more bacteria, which ultimately results in periodontitis, a teeth and gum disease that can progress and infect other parts of the body.

Canine bad breath presages the onset of a dental disease. A dog breath freshener will cure dog bad breath temporarily but it is only regular cleaning of your dog’s teeth that can preventing any future dental problems.

Training dogs to accept tooth brushing is important before you actually start doing it. The best time to do it is when they are young. A young dog is more likely to accept a toothbrush and the unnatural taste of toothpaste because adult dogs are prone to be much more resistant to any change.

Even if you missed out on training your dog when your pet was young or you brought home an adult pet, here are some guidelines about how you can actually go about it training your dog to accept the process.

As a dog owner have you ever noticed that some visitors often complain about the ‘dog smell’ that pervades in your house? It takes some time to get used to dog smell and unless you own a dog it is difficult to get accustomed to it. Dog breath can also sometimes give out an offensive smell and can be extremely embarrassing.

Although bad dog breath occurs mostly due to improper dental care, it can also be a result of stomach problems or certain metabolic diseases. Flatulency may lead to gaseous emissions from your dog’s mouth as well as anus.

You can look for a good dog breath freshener to get over such problems in the short term. However, these should be considered as temporary solutions and cannot be expected to address underlying stomach or metabolic problems.

Canine bad breath is a common occurrence and most owners struggle with offensive dog breath at least once. If your dog has bad breath here is what you can do:

If you have not been brushing your dog’s teeth, learning to brush your dogs’ teeth is the first thing that you should do. Brushing dog teeth is not difficult to learn and only takes some patience and practice. You do need to ensure that your dog gets used to the process. You can look for one of those flavored toothpastes that your dog may readily accept and in no time he may even start looking forward to it.

A vast majority of dogs can be put under anesthesia safely for dental cleaning but that does not mean that anesthetizing a dog, or for that matter does not carry any risk.

At the same time it is also equally dangerous to let plaque and tartar accumulate on teeth and gums. Build up of tartar is responsible for simple symptoms like bad breath to serious dental diseases including gingivitis and periodontitis.

Cleaning dog teeth is an essential part of dog grooming and your pet’s teeth should ideally be cleaned daily if you want to avoid any dental complications. There is a huge range of products, manual as well as electric, that is available in the market that you can use to clean your dogs’ teeth at home.

Your dog’s oral health is also an indicator of the general health of your dog. Many diseases in other parts of the body manifest themselves by certain dental or oral symptoms. On the other hand, sometimes dental diseases can cause other more serious problems and can affect vital organs in the body.

Dogs do not generally have cavities like humans. Dental disease mostly affects their gums. Gum diseases like gingivitis are primarily responsible for tooth decay, abscesses and serious dental ailments like periodontitis.

Healthy dog gums are firm. They are just like the dog’s skin – pink, black or spotted. Dog teeth are initially white in color and tend to darken as the dog gets older. Initially 23 rootless baby teeth emerge. These are pushed out when permanent (usually 42 but much depends upon the breed of the dog) teeth start to develop.