Dental Disease             
Oral hygiene is one of the most overlooked areas of medical care for animals. Proper dental care does not just make your pet's breath smell better; it is essential for your pet's long term quality of life. Dental disease is a treatable and preventable problem!

Symptoms
You may notice the following:-

• bad breath (halitosis)

• inflamed gums (gingivitis)

• tartar

• difficulty chewing or pain when chewing

• poor appetite and weight loss.

Dental disease usually shows itself as gum disease (gingivitis) secondary to plaque and tartar accumulation on the teeth.

Plaque is an invisible accumulation of bacteria that forms on teeth. As the plaque on your pet's teeth continues to accumulate, it eventually mineralizes and hardens to form tartar, which can be observed accumulating on the tooth surface.

As the disease process progresses, the gums recede and become inflamed. This inflammation is gingivitis, and is noticed as reddened gums. If gingivitis is left untreated the inflammation moves into the root of the tooth (periodontal disease) and can cause pain and tooth loss. Eventually, bacteria from this infection enter into the bloodstream and can cause serious disease to heart valves, liver, and kidneys. This pet might be lethargic, coughing, have breathing difficulty, or have a general appearance of poor health.

Treatment
After your pet is anaesthetised, the tartar is gently removed by scaling using ultrasonic vibrations. This gentle and thorough method allows the important goal of removing tartar under the gum line. If this disease process under the gum line is not addressed, your pet's teeth will not be adequately cleaned. This must be done under anaesthesia so that it can be done properly, and with no anxiety or pain to your pet. Teeth that are too far gone to be cleaned will be removed and antibiotics prescribed to prevent infection.

Prevention
Regular cleaning with doggie toothpaste is recommended and a good diet containing biscuit helps. There are many "treats" that are on the market that reduce tartar by chewing. Toys that can be chewed are also of benefit.  Homeopathic remedies that are added to water are beneficial too.

We do not usually endorse products but this stuff really works.  After trying it for 6 weeks the difference was remarkable.  The product is called Fragaria and its a Strawberry Extract.  It can be used on humans as well and is a small white pill that is dropped into their water.  We have a 19 year old dog in the rescue who is way too old to go under anesthetic and her teeth were appalling with 100% tartar buildup which we couldn't get off.  Pepys teeth are probably about 50% covered in tartar now and in bad cases like this you can see the tartar chipping off.  It is amazing.