Quote Originally Posted by Pembroke_Corgi
...does anyone know how often dogs should have their teeth professionally cleaned?

....Does anyone know if a professional teeth cleaning can be done without anesthesia?...
First question: With regular brushing and care of your dogs teeth, they should never have to be cleaned professionally in most cases . Of course, there are probably exceptions...

Second question: Yes, it can be done without the use of anesthetic depending on how bad the teeth are and how tolerant the dog is. If you're considering getting your dog's teeth cleaned by a vet and would rather not use anesthetic, you could probably talk to your vet about that.

So far everyone has given you some great advice but I wanted to add, you can use a dental pick on pets (I'm not sure what it's called exactly...) like dentists use on humans to get the plaque and stuff off. I usually do that every week or two with my 4 dogs aswell as regular brushing and giving them raw bones and greenies...