[pstinard]

Originally Posted by KatysMom

In a somewhat round-about way, SkeptVet article (2011) seems to be saying many of the same things postulated by PetMD 2014 article.

SkeptVet reports about the older, 1996 study, but then discusses a 2011 study (p. British Journal of Nutrition)

Of that 2011 study, SkeptVet writes (emphasis added), "This survey of thousands of dogs and cats seen by veterinarians in Poland identified brushing and the use of dental treats as significant factors reducing the risk of oral disease. No surprise there. However, the results also showed that homemade diets were associated with an increased risk of oral disease and that exclusive feeding of dry diets reduced the risk of oral disease."

I had a thread about this a little while back that reached the same conclusions. There thread is here: https://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yo...-raw-diet.html . I'll quote it below:

I'm reading through a veterinary college level textbook on small animal nutrition (Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition. Fascetti, AJ and Delaney, SJ, eds. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.) and thought I'd share some of the findings from the chapter on periodontal (dental) diseases.

By age 12 to 14, about 96% of dogs will have some form of periodontal disease. Periodontis will develop in almost all dogs fed standard commercial diets. However, dental disease was worse in animals fed soft (canned food) diets as opposed to dry (kibble diets). That's because dry food helps scrape off the plaque. Dogs fed home cooked meals tended to have more dental problems than dogs fed dry kibble, probably because the home cooked food is soft and doesn't scrape off plaque. Once weekly feeding of oxtails (to beagles) reduced the amount of plaque to about 5%, but plaque isn't the only issue.

The conclusion is that commercial diets are associated with periodontal disease, and canned food is worse than dry food. Supplementation with natural chews like oxtails improved dental health.

Despite this, however, dogs fed raw "natural" diets did not have better dental health than those fed commercial diets. Although they had less plaque, they had more gingivitis and chipped/broken teeth.

Chews like rawhide chews and CET chews improved dental health for some dogs, but not all, and didn't give consistent results.

Specially formulated dental diets, with or without special chews, also gave inconsistent results.

Do you know what was the most effective? Daily tooth brushing. It not only reduces the plaque, but it also stimulates the gums to make them healthier and helped prevent gingivitis. Only daily brushing worked--you couldn't brush the teeth only ever other day.

Conclusions and recommendations from the book chapter:

1. Dental disease is the most common disease affecting dogs. The kind of dog food fed (dry kibble, canned, or raw food) didn't affect the amount of dental disease.

2. Although chews can reduce plaque, they don't prevent gingivitis and other dental diseases.

3. Daily tooth brushing, in combination with recreational chewing, mouth rinsing, and dental water additives, proved to be the most effective at reducing dental diseases.