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Originally Posted by Yorkiesatwork  My four year old Max has 75% collapsing trachea and is being treated by the University of Georgia Vet School. One of his meds is an opiate elixir, and before I really noticed, he's developed really heavy, almost concrete like tarter on his front teeth right where I put the syringe in his mouth. He takes it twice a day. A month ago, I started using Peteze Tarter control gel on a tiny toothbrush twice a day. It seemed to help a lot at first, but we're at a stalemate. I've been reading about tooth scaling without anesthesia. Anyone out there tried that? Max has become very tolerant of my messing with his teeth. I use one of those tiny, single use toothbrushes, but I pop the mouthwash 'pearl' out of it first. Fits his tiny mouth perfectly. Should I continue to use the gel? Will it eventually clear his mouth? Would appreciate comments from folks who have solved the plaque problem without anesthesia. |
I've tried anesthesia free cleaning & had a very good experience. You do have to be very careful w/who cleans your dog's teeth. Make sure they have credentials & are trained technicians. I used Houndstooth & they were working out of a holistic vet office. The vet checked the teeth 1st & ok'ed the procedure. Obviously, my guys teeth had a little bit of tartar build up, no periodontal disease or gingivitis. Anesthesia free cleaning should not replace anesthesia dental cleaning. After my girls had anesthesia free cleaning, they had anesthesia dental cleaning by my vet about a year later. One boy will have his 1st anesthesia dental cleaning in Feb & he's 5 years old. Momo is another story, he's the only one that will not let me thoroughly brush his teeth. He wasn't a good candidate for anesthesia free cleaning, he had to go under & he lost 3 small molars on the bottom. That's another issue doing anesthesia free cleaning, they can't determine if the dog needs his/her teeth pulled, a vet needs to do that, so there are dangers & risks involved.
This should be closely discussed w/your vet. If your guy has not had a dental cleaning in awhile, it might be best to do it via anesthesia or some other sedation they suggest. They do have specialists that deal w/high risk patients that need to go under anesthesia.