Hi. I'm Doctor Fiona Caldwell and today I'll show you how to recognize dental disease in your dog or cat.
This is Emily. Emily is a fourteen-and-a-half-year-old long-hair dachshund. She's owned by one of our kennel attendants and she's going to help me demonstrate today how to see if your dog has dental disease. Dogs tend to get periodontal disease, meaning that the disease is around the teeth. So there's varying grades or severities of the disease. A grade one may just be some inflammation of the gums and some mild tartar and plaque build-up, whereas a more advanced grade, such as what Emily has, you're going to actually see gum recession away from the tooth and pretty heavy tartar accumulation as well.
So in addition to being a source of bad breath, dental disease can lead to pain, infection. It can be a source of infection for the rest of the body as well. So being proactive with your dog and your cat's dental health is a great way to keep them healthy.
So Emily has more advanced periodontal disease and it's illustrated by the heavy tartar accumulation, which is the brown that you're seeing where the tooth should be white. And then she's actually got some gum recession away from the tartar, especially on these back molars here. You can see the gingivitis with inflammation of her gums and the recession around that tooth. On the incisors here, you can also see that heavy tartar and starting to get some gum recession as well.
To help proactively take care of your dog or cat's teeth, view this video by Dr. Fiona to learn how to brush your pet's teeth.