What is your routine for dental health?

[Greenepony]

As an aside I just took my 92 year old mother in law to the dentist - she has only one tooth missing (cracked and had to be pulled last year), one crown, no cavities and the teeth & gums of a 40 year old according to the dentist. Amazing considering she had a stroke that had her in hospital for 3 months with minimal dental hygiene during that time. Genetics!

Not to go too far off topic but that's amazing! My mom's in her mid-50s and has had to have 3 teeth pulled so far and is going to lose more soon- she brushes, flosses, uses the waterpik, etc but because of medication, genetics, etc her teeth are literally crumbling. Her mother lost most of her teeth in her 40s, her dad is on his second set of "chompers", and several of her siblings have crowns.


Olive's routine is a 1/2 scoop of proden plaqueoff in her evening kibble (half of her diet is kibble, other half frozen green beans), free choice elk antler (starts at ~6-8"), teeth brushing with Kissable paste 1-3 times a week, and an enzyme gel if it looks like it's building up on her molars again. The vet is very pleased. She has a little bit of plaque but adding the enzyme helped. My sheltie growing up had horrific teeth so I don't want to subject Olive to that discomfort of that or having to go under for a cleaning.

 

[Watson's Mom]

I can't remember who it was who commented months and months about smearing a chewie with toothpaste but thank you! I just finally took a real good looksie in Watson's mouth and despite the fact that he still has some rotten swamp breath, his teeth actually are starting to look better than I thought they were judging by the breath. Maybe a bully stick session or two can get him the rest of the way there.