Commit to Home Dental Care

When the New Year rolls around our focus often shifts to renewing and refreshing our lives in the form of New Year’s resolutions.  We often hear people say that they’d like to be healthier, eat better, and exercise more.   This year, in the spirit of celebrating our dental health quarter at West Ridge Animal Hospital, we challenge you to include your furry family members in this promise of betterment and wellness by committing to your pet’s dental health!

Keeping your pet’s mouth healthy can come in the form of providing at-home preventive care, and in the form of professional dental cleanings at West Ridge Animal Hospital.  Home care is the most important preventive measure against periodontal disease, and can be worked into your daily routine in just a few short minutes.  Check out these options for home dental care, and find out what will fit into your daily routine best…or do them all!

• Make brushing your pet’s teeth part of your bedtime ritual after you brush your own.  It is important to remember that using human toothpaste on pets is not safe.  We have special enzymatic pet-safe toothpaste, soft bristled brushes, finger brushes, and special swabs with a recipe for tuna water for cats available in our lobby. 
• Keep a gallon of premixed Healthy Mouthwater in your refrigerator so refilling your pet’s water dish is fast and hassle-free.  Healthy Mouth is a water additive made with natural and organic ingredients.  The concentrate is mixed with your pet’s drinking water, and is accepted by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) to control plaque. 
• Make your dog or cat think they are getting spoiled by offering them a Greenie dental treat a few times a week.  Greenies unique texture provides an effective scrubbing action.  Green tea extract and chlorophyll help keep your pet’s breath fresh.  These are accepted by the VOHC to control plaque and tartar. 
• We all know how much dogs love to chew; save your shoes and scrub your pet’s teeth simultaneously by providing safe chew toys such as Kong toys or CET Chews.  CET Chews are available for both cats and dogs, and are specially treated raw hide and chew treats that help keep teeth clean.  When offering chews, be sure to stay away from anything too hard such as real bones, antlers, hooves, compressed rawhides, and plastic bones as these could fracture your dog’s teeth, and always supervise chew time.  Check out our great selection of safe, natural rubber Kong toys in the lobby at WestRidge Animal Hospital.  
• Providing home dental care can also be as easy as scooping kibble into their bowl.  Specially formulated and shaped dental diets are available for both dogs and cats.  The texture and size of the kibble allow your pet’s teeth to really sink into the kibble before it crunches apart, providing a mechanical scrubbing action on the teeth. 

Home dental care is essential in preventing the onset or progression of periodontal disease, however, a professional anesthetized cleaning is the only way to completely clean all surfaces of your pet’s teeth, acquire x-rays of the teeth and jaw, and to remove hard tartar build-up.  Giving your pet a professional dental cleaning each year has just gotten a whole lot easier too!  West Ridge Animal Hospital is proud to announce they are providing twelve month financing on dental procedures for patients with mild to moderate periodontal disease, what we call Grades one and two, through Extend Credit.  These incredible plans allow you to make convenient monthly payments for twelve months on dental cleanings, after application and approval.  Make it a resolution every year to enroll your pet in these fantastic dental plans that provide the best and safest professional anesthetized dental cleaning available.  Your pet will be given a full-mouth cleaning with the most advanced tools, including an ultrasonic scaler, along with digital dental radiographs to check for any problems below the gum line that are not otherwise visible. 

Remember, pets have teeth too, and need routine care just like people to keep them looking and feeling their best.  Luckily, with a New Year right around the corner and so many options for providing care, committing to your pet’s dental health this year will be effortless.