Dental Problems

Question
Hi, I have a 11-12 year old Maltese. She has a lot of tartar on her teeth and my vet recommended her to get her teeth cleaned. But my friend told me to just bring her to the groomer because they can scrap the tartar off the teeth. I don't know if I should go to the vet to get it cleaned or at the groomers, how are they different? I am also worried about getting my dog's teeth cleaned at the vet because she has to go under anesthesia and she's old, and I heard that it's bad to go under anesthesia too often (She had to go under anesthesia to get her teeth cleaned before and a surgery to remove tumor). I am also worried to bring my dog to the groomers to scrap off the tartar because I am not sure if they know what they are doing and I don't want my dog to go under unnecessary pain. Also how do I help maintain my dog's teeth. I read books and they said the reason for the tartar is because of eating commerical dog food, so therefore I decided to make homecooked meals for my dog instead from the book Dr. Pitcairn's complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats. Please help me, thank you!

Answer
First of all, never, ever go to a groomer to get your dog's teeth cleaned. It is illegal for a groomer to do ANY kind of teeth cleaning on pets and any groomer that does it is not a very ethical one. I would never trust my dog to someone that does illegal things to pets. They also hurt dogs when they do this and can cause serious injury to your dogs mouth, tongue, gums and even break their jaws. Dogs will NOT tolerate this being done without restraint so you can bet she will be doing something to hold down your dog.

Secondly, there is always some risk with any procedure- but your dog will be in MUCH better hands- TRAINED hands of a Veterinarian that is trained in not only anesthesia but in emergency reversal and rescue tactics for dogs that have problems.

Your dog can have some pre-op blood work done to make sure her kidneys and liver are functioning properly so that she can take the anesthetic also. Today's anesthetics are the same drugs used on people.

Your dogs mouth is creating huge amounts of bacteria right now that are attacking her heart, kidneys and even her liver and stomach. She needs to get this bacterial laden tartar off her teeth and more- she needs a total dental prophylaxis, which is what we get at the dentist. The technician at the vet's will clean not just what YOU see, but UNDER the gumline, called the gingiva, to get all the tartar and bacteria out that you CAN'T see- something the Groomer cannot do!!
That is where the worst bacteria hide too.

She will get a really thorough cleaning, a wash over her mouth and gums to cleanse it further and to coat it and keep the bacteria off for a day or so. Your dog may even lose some teeth because the root attachments to the gingiva is so bad that they fall out.

Don't believe everything you read either, J. Feeding your dog the PROPER food is essential to maintaining dental health but CLEANING their teeth is more important. How good would your teeth be if you ate a good diet but never cleaned or brushed them? Not very good.
There are a lot of dental diets out there that can do both for you now but Science Diet Adult foods are made to help with tartar control. Even better and made just for this is Hill's Prescritption T/D- which was formulated for to maintain dental health and be a complete and balanced diet for life.
Home made diets are NOT balanced because no one can maintain or get all the ingredients that Dr. Pitcairn talks about. And some of the worst dentals I ever did were on dogs that ate a lot of homemade food.
I am a Veterinary Technician Dental Specialist and have done over 3000 dentals in the 20 years I was with my one practice. I know how this works and know the pitfalls of not taking care of your dog's teeth properly.

So make an appointment with the vet. Discuss with him and the technician your concerns and fears. You won't be the first one to have an issue with the anesthetic. Communicate what you are afraid of and I am sure the vet will take extra care with your baby. She isn't that old really- so I am sure she will do fine. Once you pick her up-usually in the afternoon- make sure you have the technician show you how to brush her teeth and ask about getting some T/D for her.
Wean her off this diet you have her on before she gets sick from the unbalanced nutrients and get her on a balanced, healthy diet like T/D or even Science Diet Natures Best if you want her on an all-natural diet. Yes, they do make one!

If you have any more questions about it, feel free to write me back.
In the meantime, here is a website that can tell you more about oral health for your dog:
http://www.petdental.com/pd2/displayContent.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302...