Keeping your Dog's teeth clean

[wolf_Q]

Just wondering what measures you take to keep your dog's teeth clean.

I try to brush Nebo's teeth every day, but usually it ends up more with 2-3 times a week. I also try to provide him with many things to chew on. Do you know which if these products that are supposed to help clean the teeth actually work? What about those "dental bones" or "greenies?" I haven't tried those yet.

Also I know they make an electric toothbrush for dogs...has anyone tried this? How often (if at all) have you had your dogs teeth cleaned (at a vet)?

[anna_66]

I've never brushed my dogs teeth, I just always give them bones and such to chew on. The vet told us their teeth look great, so I guess I don't have to worry:)

[DoggiesAreTheBest]

Drake gets his teeth brushed everynight when we brush ours! He also gets lots of bones to chew on. He is 2 and a half years old and has the peraly whites of a 5 month old pup!

[micki76]

We brush almost daily, may miss a day here or there. We also give TONS of chewies. Our vet actually said that cleaning their teeth (at the vets) can resilt in their teeth accumulating more tatar than before. He recommends brushing daily ;) and good chew toys. He offered to clean their teeth, but strongly advised against it, unless of course you have already a LARGE build up of tartar, and then it needs to be done. Prevention is best!

[ParNone]

I give mine dry dog food and things to chew, like dentabones
to help keep their teeth clean. Plus they don't get any people
junk food.

Maddie's never had to have her teeth cleaned. They stay
naturally clean.

Murph's had to have his scraped twice in 12 yrs.

I've been trying to get in a regime of brushing Oz's teeth, but
at best it's once a week.

Par...

[Tina]

I usually just give my dogs all kinds of dental bones to chew on. I've never tried brushing their teeth. I'd like to try even though their teeth are very white.

[ramanth]

I give Kia the Dentabones once a month and she has nice teeth and the vet says they look good. :)

[Dixieland Dancer]

Along with bones and chewies, I also brush them about twice a week. I actually started using an old Colgate spin brush that my son had finished using. I thought they would hate it but they don't seem to mind. It must have something to do with the beef flavored pet toothpaste.

[RubyMutt]

Ruby gets Dentabones. She LOVES them and they work great. She also has a dino chew toy (which she also loves) that keeps her teeth clean. She also gets rawhide treats, which I believe help keep teeth healthy. She has a Kong toy also (which she's usually not very interested in unless it has treats inside of it), I think they're supposed to help keep teeth healthy as well. We don't take her to the vet for the sole purpose of getting her teeth cleaned, but when we take her in for check-ups or whatever we ask them to do it if she needs it. The vet always says her teeth look great, so, yeah, it appears as those things do work :)

[*LabLoverKEB*]

I try to brush Sadie's teeth every other day! :) ;)

[LoudLou]

I get lots of bones and dental chewies and my Mama brushes my teeth 2-3 times a week.... I even have my own Scooby-Doo tooth brush. White Coats say for being almost 4 I have excellent Pearly Whites!:D

[shais_mom]

I try to brush Keegan's teeth but am not very good about it. I occasionally give her greenies and the dental rings. She likes those. She doesn't really like the dentabones. I also give her raw beef or pork bones a couple times a week. She just had a checkup last week and the vet said that they were perfect. Which is good b/c when she was 7 mos old I saw some buildup on her teeth and worried about her having to have her teeth cleaned, but now just until the vet says, we will wait!

[wolf_Q]

Nebo is 7 1/2 months...and he has build-up on his teeth. :confused: I've been brushing his teeth (at least 1-3 times a week) ever since he was a tiny pup and didn't even have adult teeth lol. Do you think this is normal? It's only on his very back teeth.....I try to brush back there, but I obviously don't get it as well as the other teeth. But it just bothers me because Lady is 9 1/2 months, Melissa RARELY (2-3 times a month, if that) brushes her teeth, and she has absolutely no build-up. Grrr.

I think I'll go buy some of those Dentabones. They are just rather expensive for just 2 bones...how long do they last your dogs? It'd probably last Nebo a couple of hours, he's a killer chewer. I've been meaning to buy some Greenies too, of course those are even more expensive lol. I just bought some of the pressed rawhide (not the colored/pressed tiny bits rawhide) which he loves to chew.

I gave him some of those dental rings once and he just started eating the cardboard and I had to take it away.

I'm sure part of this is just me being paranoid...but we didn't do anything for Reggie and Smokey's teeth...and now they are AWFUL. We had Reggie's teeth cleaned for the first time this summer and now he has basically no teeth left. I don't want my pup to end up like that!

[ownerof3dogs]

I also brush my dogs teeth about once a week. Herc is the only one who likes it done. But mostly I feed them dry food, which helps alot, and give them soup bones from the butcher and pig ears. Felice is almost 9yo and her teeth are better looking them some 2 yo dogs I've seen!

There is a dry food called T/D made by science diet that you can feed dogs/cats that have bad teeth or you can feed it to make sure they don't get bad teeth. The food is large nugguts so the dog/cat HAS to chew it, so it breaks up tarter. You can also feed it as treat to help their teeth..

[RubyMutt]

Originally posted by wolf_Q
I think I'll go buy some of those Dentabones. They are just rather expensive for just 2 bones...how long do they last your dogs? It'd probably last Nebo a couple of hours, he's a killer chewer.

Yeah, that's the one bad thing about Dentabones. Quite pricey :rolleyes: They don't even last Ruby a couple hours.... usually only around a half hour... So it's probably good to have another source of teeth cleaning along with Dentabones every once and awhile... I haven't tried Greenies yet... I'm kinda afraid to since Ruby usually turns her nose up to veggie treats :rolleyes:

[Poodle&Labmix]

I used to brush Dúna's teeth almost every day but now I always forget. She loves dental bones and treats and the vet said that she had amazingly clean teeth for a 5 year old dog.
The vet cleaned her teeth a little bit but they were almost spotless. She wanted to clean her teeth because she just got a new machine to clean teeth, Dúna had just a tiny tartar but now she has none :)

[Jody Hanson]

I noticed that the discussion here on dental care included a question regarding Greenies, so on behalf of the company I wanted to provide you a few facts that should answer your question.

An independent study conducted by a research kennel found that dogs given just one Greenies a day showed nearly an 8-fold decrease in dental tartar accumulation. On a scale of 0 (for no tartar accumulation) to 72 (for heavy build-up), the dogs given one Greenies daily scored an average of 3.3 compared to 26 when Greenies were not given. A score of 3.3 means very little tartar accumulation.

Please visit www.greenies.com to learn more about Greenies.

Thanks,
Jody Hanson

[sammi]

I had never even heard of Greenies before! I will check these out.