Simple Ways to Maintain Your Dog's Dental Hygiene at Home

We're all used to doggy breath being an unpleasant blast whenever our furry friends want to get up close and personal. Some of us are familiar enough with it that we keep track of those odors – unpleasant as they can be – as a sign of health.

One of the key factors that influence a dog's breath is their dental hygiene. Unfortunately, while dogs can be trained to do a lot, you really can't train them to brush their teeth, floss, or use mouthwash. Even if they wanted to, they don't have hands! So, you have to do what you can to keep their teeth healthy and strong.

What Dental Care Does Your Dog Need?

Dogs need to keep their teeth for as long as possible because it's how they chew their food and how they handle things in their mouth. If their teeth aren't properly cared for, they can cause pain, lead to infections, break, or fall out. Over time, your dog may end up without teeth entirely, and you'll need to adapt the kinds of food and other activities you perform with them.

What care does your dog's mouth need?

Daily Brushing

Ideally, you will brush your pupper's teeth once a day. The biology of the mouth is the same between dogs and people, more or less, and that means after they eat, bits of food, saliva, bacteria, and other stuff form a sticky plaque that adheres to teeth. This plaque is alive due to the bacteria, which secrete acids as they live. Those acids eat away at teeth and cause inflammation, decay, and infection to gums and bone.

Therefore, the best time to brush your dog's teeth is shortly after a meal. However, as we often don't have the time or the patience to do that, you can pick any time that is convenient for you as long as it gets done.

Better Food

One of the dirty secrets of dog food is that many dog foods contain fillers. We all know this, of course, but what most people don't realize is that those fillers are often much worse for oral health than natural ingredients.

Things like grains and other carbohydrates are better food for the bad mouth bacteria and more readily form plaques. So, feeding your pooch better food will help in a bunch of different ways, including with tooth care.

Regular Exams

Routine dental examinations, including x-rays and cleanings, can help prevent the build-up of plaques and gum disease and detect abscesses under the gums, lesions on bone, and other oral issues. They can even detect other forms of illness, including oral tumors before they get large enough to become a visible problem.

You often don't need a full anesthetic dental visit every six months. Your vet will check for signs of tooth and mouth problems in a casual examination when you bring your dog in, and only if they have signs of issues will a dental trip be recommended. At that point, you can plan for a trip where anesthetic may be likely, a deeper clean is required, and even dental care like fillings can be performed.

How to Help Keep Your Dog's Mouth Healthy at Home

Keeping your pooch's mouth healthy at home will have long-term repercussions. They'll be able to live without mouth pain, they'll have teeth that can keep them happy and healthy for longer, and you won't have to worry about softer foods for a while. Older dogs can still succumb to the inevitable – that is, teeth will decay over time, and there's not much we can do about it – but the longer you can hold it off, the better.

So, what can you do to help keep your dog's mouth healthy at home?

Get in the habit of brushing their teeth.

Sadly, while we all know that caring for teeth is important, less than 1% of dog parents actually brush their pup's teeth. As a result, nearly 80% of dogs over three years old have full-blown periodontal disease, and will have long-term repercussions because of it.

Some dogs are placid and happy to let you mess around in their mouth. Most, though, aren't, so you're going to need to train them to tolerate it.

First, buy a doggy toothbrush and doggy toothpaste. Toothbrushes are designed with soft bristles, angled handles, and even multiple heads to make it easier to get all the angles of all the teeth fast and effectively.

Doggy toothpaste is especially important. One of the most common additives in human toothpaste is xylitol, which helps to restore tooth enamel. Unfortunately, it's also very toxic to dogs. Doggy toothpaste also comes in flavors they'll enjoy, like chicken, peanut butter, or beef.

The actual act of training is slow and works best if you start when they're young.

• Start by just getting them to hold still while you inspect their mouth.
• Once you can do that, start introducing the toothbrush. Don't brush yet; just touch parts of their mouth to get them used to the feeling until they can tolerate it.
• Introduce the toothpaste. You might want to put a little on a finger or on the toothbrush and let them sniff and lick it so they know it's not something to be scared of.
• Start brushing teeth. It's easiest to hold their lip up and brush their front teeth to start, so they get used to the sensation.
• Over time, add more teeth until you can brush all of their teeth inside and out.

Throughout this whole process, praise them and pet them for tolerating it without complaint. If they start to reject it, dial back, and don't force it. You'll be able to help them get used to it over time.

The American Kennel Club goes into this process in greater detail if you want a bit more elaboration.

Buy dental-friendly dog food.

Something I already mentioned above is that dog foods can be pretty bad for your dog, especially if they're full of carbohydrates and fillers that fuel the bad bacteria. Dental dog foods aren't as good as tooth brushing, but they can help cut down on the food that fuels the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Unfortunately, they tend to be more expensive and harder to find than normal dog foods, and they aren't always compatible with allergy foods, so you may not be able to use them over an allergy-friendly food.

There are also prescription dog foods for more extreme or more sensitive cases. Some dogs need carefully balanced food, and some are just a lot more susceptible to tooth decay than others. In those cases, getting a prescription might help with insurance covering costs and other benefits, as well as making some foods available to you that otherwise wouldn't be available.

Invest in doggy dental chews.

Dental chews are basically healthy treats for dogs. They're textured and ridged, stuff enough to scrape plaque off of teeth, but not so hard that they can cause damage to teeth or gums as your dog chews on them. Sometimes, they also include ingredients that help fight mouth bacteria and ward off tooth decay.

Dental chews aren't a replacement for tooth brushing, but they're a good supplement, and if your dog really doesn't want to have anything to do with a toothbrush, they can be better than nothing.

Give your dog a chew toy.

Chew toys aren't just for enrichment and entertainment; they're also a way your dog can chew on something that not only doesn't contribute to plaque formation but helps get rid of it.

Chew toys of various sorts, including plastic, rubber, nylon, and even rawhide, can help keep your pooch entertained and bust some of the plaque that builds up over time. Rotate through different kinds of chew toys so they always have something fun and new to play with.

Consider powders and sprays.

For dogs that are extremely averse to any kind of dental hygiene, you can try powders and sprays.

Sprays are spritzes you can either spray directly into your dog's mouth or onto something like a chew toy so that when they lick and chew on the toy, it gets into their mouth and on their teeth. It's made of a bunch of different ingredients, but the most important are minor antibacterials that will kill mouth bacteria. The end result is less plaque build-up, better breath, and less tooth decay.

Powders, meanwhile, are similar, except they work in a different way. They're probiotics, which means they're made up of good, healthy bacteria. You sprinkle some on your dog's food, and when they eat, the good bacteria eat some of the leftover bits of food that the bad bacteria normally would, out-competing the bad bacteria and preventing tooth decay. Again, they aren't as effective as tooth brushing, but it's a good supplement, especially if you can't find or can't afford dental-friendly food.

There are also powders and drops that can be added to your dog's water dish to do the same thing. They're tasteless and odorless, but they help kill bad bacteria and keep your dog's mouth clean.

If all else fails, try dental wipes.

Dental wipes are basically cloths soaked in a dental-cleaning liquid. Instead of using a large and irritating toothbrush, you can wrap one around your finger and just use that to "brush" your dog's teeth.

They aren't as good as a brush at getting into all the little divots and nooks in a dog's mouth, but they're often more tolerable than a brush and can help you give your dog a brushing without using a brush or toothpaste.

Dog Dental Hygiene FAQ

Let's round things out with some common questions.

How often should a dog visit a doggy dentist?

Just like people, our pupper pals need to have dental exams and cleanings on a regular basis. Often, that should be about once every six months, just like it is for people. It can be part of a general vet check-up, or as a special doggy dental visit.

It's important to remember that a casual dental inspection can't catch everything and that a full, in-depth cleaning and examination requires general anesthesia. Your vet will need to check for places where teeth touch a surface they shouldn't, where guns are inflamed or prone to bleeding, and where cavities may have formed under the gumline. They will also check the soft tissues and palate, tonsils, tongue, lips, and more.

What happens if your dog gets a cavity?

Cavities are actually a lot less common in dogs than in people. Usually, dogs end up with gum disease that, if it progresses, can damage the jawbone and the gums. Cavities are less common because of dog diets and how much more exposed their teeth tend to be.

There's a common misconception that dogs don't get dental care the way we do. In fact, if your dog has a cavity, they can get a filling just like we do; they can even get a full root canal and crown if necessary. The downside is that it's usually quite expensive, so many people opt for having the tooth pulled instead. This can be fine for a single tooth, but over time, if your dog loses too many teeth, it can hinder their quality of life.

What dogs are most susceptible to tooth decay?

In broad strokes, the smaller a dog is, the more likely they are to have issues with tooth decay. There are two reasons for this. The first is that smaller breeds are just genetically a lot more likely to have issues than larger dogs. The second is that their teeth are physically a lot smaller, so even a tiny spot of decay can cause more problems, whereas a larger dog has more leeway before it causes issues.

Are no-anesthetic dental visits viable?

Unfortunately, no. Some doggy dental clinics offer no-anesthetic cleanings and procedures, but these tend to be pretty traumatizing for our poor pup pals and can make it harder for you to take care of their teeth later. It's better to opt for the anesthetic when it's necessary.

Do you have any questions about maintaining your dog's dental hygiene, or was there anything I mentioned in this article that you'd like additional clarification on? If so, I'm always more than happy to help, so be sure to leave a comment down below, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!