Mrspunkysmom, i was told by a lady at the cat shelter that ginger cats are more prone to this, my ellie has ginger in her, but she is a calico as you can see,so i am not certain how much truth there is to that, but maybe there is something in their gene pool, who knows.
Glad she's feeling better. If Ginger is also Orange, then that applies to Sam as well. My Calico female, RB Maggie, had teeth problems, too. The filtered water doesn't prevent the problems, but it does greatly reduce the recurrence.

This vet is trying other preventive measures so he can keep his teeth, but I am not opposed to pulling teeth if it means a better quality of life. A previous vet told me to feed dry food since that helps with tartar, but she didn't know what to say when I told her that Sam is the dry food eater in the house.

I do hope she can improve.