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by R.L. Wysong, B.S., D.V.M.
Your Pet's Dental Health
Degenerative tooth and gum disease is a modern plague in pets. At least 80 percent of dogs and 60 percent of cats have gingivitis, periodontitis or tooth decay. The constant consumption of canned mush and melt-in-your-mouth nuggets does nothing to properly clean teeth and stimulate tooth and gum health. The accumulation of tartar and the resultant septic gum disease bring on tooth loss, foul breath, pain, loss of appetite and “seeding” of organs with infection, resulting in degenerative diseases of the heart, kidneys, liver and bones.
The Problem
Proper management of pet health begins with understanding causes. A processed, grain-based diet leads to chronic acidosis, creating the perfect environment for pathogen proliferation and demineralization of teeth and their bony sockets. Additionally, when certain foods are deposited on teeth, a microenvironment is created conducive to the formation of calculus, or plaque, as it is also known. Sugars (carbohydrates) within plaque also create acids that leach calcium and phosphorus from the tooth. This softens tooth structure, allowing for development of cavities (dental caries). Plaque at the gum-tooth interface provides a perfect microenvironment for bacterial growth, inflammation, gum recession (periodontitis), alveolar bone disintegration and eventual tooth loss.
Prevention
The basis of prevention is good nutrition. Modern pet food producers’ emphasis on processed, fractionated, refined, dead, devitalized, carbohydrate-based foods takes its toll on health in many ways. Cooked starches, which are major components of processed pet foods, remain longer in the mouth, increasing the amount of time cariogenic bacteria can feed on them. Such foods create sticky mouth residue regardless of their crunchy “dental preventive” design. Canines and felines are not chewers, but rather chunk swallowers and thus even if the food were filled with hundreds of tiny toothbrushes, the only effect would be a scrubbed stomach.
Feeding a variety of fresh, whole foods helps ensure the right amounts and combinations of nutrients and textures to reverse metabolic acidosis and establish good oral and overall health.
Raw Bones
Far better than any clever carbohydrate-based processed invention are the foods that have maintained animal dental health for eons. The dental disease we see in modern pets is virtually nonexistent in animals in the wild eating their natural, whole—and bony—prey. Although it has long been a subject of great confusion and debate, raw bones are the perfect nutritious dentifrice and should be a part of every pet’s diet. Offering your pet raw bones can virtually eliminate degenerative tooth and gum disease and offers a host of other benefits. If an animal is raised with regular access to bones, they will rarely over-consume, which can happen when an animal deprived of its natural diet by being fed only from bags and cans is suddenly offered real food in the form of bones. Large beef knucklebones for dogs and chicken wings and necks for cats and puppies are far superior to any fabricated food. When first introducing bones, just make sure your pet does not overdo it, since this could cause constipation. To begin you may wish to offer the bone two or three times a day for short intervals only. After a while, assuming you are converting to a more healthful all-around diet, your pet will regulate its bone consumption to a safe level. (Caution: cooked bones can splinter, as well as cause constipation since they can easily be consumed in excess.)
Tooth-Friendly People Foods
Feeding your pet a variety of “table scraps” is only bad advice if you are putting processed junk food on the family’s dinner table. But if you are health conscious, trying to feed your family a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dairy products and meats, such food can only benefit your pet. Several “people foods,” in addition to adding healthy variety to the diet, can also promote your pet’s dental and oral health.
For example, certain cheeses, including aged cheddar, Monterey jack, Swiss, Romano and mozzarella, have unique properties that help prevent tooth decay. First, the alkaline nature of these cheeses buffers the acidity of plaque and raises pH to neutralize tooth-destroying acids. Second, salivary flow is increased, thereby diluting and clearing sugars from the oral cavity. Finally, cheese proteins impede demineralization of tooth enamel and aid in remineralization, resulting in retained or regained enamel hardness.
Probiotic cultures and enzymes, such as those found in yogurt, provide many internal benefits, including those specific to dental health. One action is to reduce the number of putrefactive bacteria responsible for bad breath. The probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus aids in optimizing calcium metabolism and produces the amino acid L-lysine, which has been linked to limiting tooth decay.
Apples contain substances called polyphenols, which have been found to prevent the attachment of S. sobrinus to tooth surfaces, thus inhibiting its production of glucans and other cariogenic factors. This antibacterial function has been shown to lead to the prevention of tooth demineralization and dental caries. Polyphenols derived from apples have also been shown in clinical studies to be two to three times as effective as even parsley seed oil in eliminating bad breath, by inhibiting production of methylmercaptan by certain bacteria by up to 80 percent.
Supplements
• Pure, non-acidotic drinking water will help reverse acidosis and bathe the mouth with antioxidant electrons.
• Antioxidants will help strengthen the immune system.
• Dentifrice containing cheeses, minerals, xylitol, potassium citrate, probiotic cultures and apple polyphenols are beneficial.
Dental health in pets is too often neglected. It is out of sight and thus out of mind until bad breath becomes intolerable or until discovered by a veterinarian. But by then much damage to gums and teeth has already occurred and the organs are seeded with infection. This is not to mention the guilt of realizing your pet may have been suffering silently for some time as a result of your oversight.
Expensive dentistry (bringing the risk of anesthesia) may be a necessary corrective measure but it does not solve the ultimate problem. Until the diet is restored more closely to that to which your pet is genetically adapted, the cycle will repeat and become increasingly risky to health.
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