February is National Pet Dental Health Month!
Bad breath and what may appear as lack of appetite may be signs of dental concern or discomfort from your fave furry friend.
Cats and dogs rarely tell us when they have pain, including severe dental pain. They often suffer quietly, often enduring pain that would have us curled up in a ball crying, without giving us even one sign! If we wait until they show us that it hurts, usually indicates that they will be subjected to months or years of chronic pain before it becomes so bad that they can’t hide it any more.
The reason for this type of behavior is simple: dogs and cats evolved for tens of thousands of years in the wild. Those who could not carry on life normally when in pain were killed. They were never given a chance to reproduce.
Think about it! What happens to a dog in the wild whose bad teeth hurt so much that it can’t chew meat off a bone? It gets weak and dies, or is killed. What happens to a cat who starts meowing because its teeth hurt? All the mice run away and it starves, or the noise attracts the attention of a predator and it gets eaten.
Thus dogs and cats who experience severe dental pain usually appear normal to our eyes. They compensate for the pain until it becomes unbearable. Only then are they unable to hide it any longer. We don’t want to wait until their pain becomes unbearable to do something, do we?
I simply ask clients what they would expect the pet to do to show signs of pain? They are unable to reach for the medicine cabinet for drugs. They are unable to point at their mouths and say “this really hurts.” Crying or wimpering does not make it feel better, so they rarely bother with that. They won’t always stop eating due to pain, in most cases, because eating is a very strong survival instinct.
So, what can they do?
The Signs Of Dental Pain:
1. Circling to the side of an abscess.
2. Chewing on one side (side with no pain – there will be a build up of tartar on the bad side).
3. Not chewing food.
4. Rubbing face on inanimate objects.
5. Not wanting anyone to touch the face/mouth.
7. Dropping objects.
8. Presence of red gums, fractured teeth…
9. Waking up under anesthesia when a sensitive spot on the tooth is touched.
“Perio is often referred to as a silent disease, as it can progress slowly without significant pain, though there may be periods of pain during the more active phases of inflammation and then once the teeth become mobile due to support loss. For some patients, it is like the headache they did not know they had until it goes away – they just accommodate to the constant pain as being normal. But they feel better after treatment”.
Many dental conditions are acutely painful. Over time, this settles down to a dull, chronic pain, which can seriously affect a pet’s quality of life and attitude. Articles in the Compendium on Continuing Education in January, February, May and June of 1991 pointed out that dogs and cats have the same pain tolerances and thresholds as humans. Therefore, a dog and cat feels dental pain in the same way and to the same degree as their owners. However, many clients will be skeptical when informed that their animal has a painful oral condition. They will report that the pet is still eating and may still be playing with its toys as if nothing is wrong. This is actually not surprising when one stops to think about it.
Evolution has taught our pets to hide their pain. In the wild, an animal seen as being weak or distressed stands little chance of survival.
Dogs are pack animals – they live together in a cooperative society, but within that group, there is competition, with advantages bestowed on the top ranking animals. Therefore, animals at the top of the hierarchy want to stay there and animals lower down are looking for opportunities to move up or at least to maintain their position. Any sign of weakness is likely to bring a challenge from below and so there is an incentive to carry on as if nothing is wrong. An animal in great distress may be seen as a liability to the pack and so may be cast out to fend for itself. In short, complaining will bring no benefit and may invite problems. A dog’s best strategy is to put up with the pain and act fit and healthy.
Cats are much less social, being solitary little predators. They are also prey to larger predators. Therefore, they also will try to look as fit and vigorous as possible, so as not to advertise themselves as an easy meal. Complaining does them no good and could do them harm.
If an animal has a sore tooth, that is one problem. If, as a result of the sore tooth, the animal stops eating it will become very hungry and so now it has two problems. Fasting is a poor survival strategy, and so rather than fasting, the animal eats, despite the pain. They may have to chew on one side of the mouth or eat without chewing much at all, but they will eat if at all possible.
Many humans will continue with their favorite activity despite injury. Runners will run with torn ligaments, tennis-players will play through tendonitis and so on. Many dogs are fanatical about their chewing and so will chew despite broken and infected teeth. Again, close observation may reveal that the animal is chewing on one side only or is avoiding the sore area.
Some dental conditions, such as tooth fracture, occur acutely. Others, such as periodontal disease develop gradually. Therefore, the pain comes on slowly, allowing the animal time to adapt and accommodate the pain. For many pets, the owners will simply report that the animal is slowing down as it is getting older. Though this is not a specific sign of dental disease, it is reason to examine the pet carefully for the cause of its decline.
So whether the animal is showing obvious signs of oral pain or not, you can be confident that conditions that would cause pain in a human mouth will be causing pain in the pet’s mouth. Pets do not always tell you when they are feeling poorly, but they will let you know when they are feeling better. Very often, when one rehabilitates a pet with a ‘bad mouth’, the owners will report a dramatic improvement in the pet’s attitude and activity level. This last point is a bit anecdotal, but it has happened so often and consistently that I am very confident in saying that even if we do not increase the quantity of life with proper dental care, we absolutely will increase the quality of life.
Fraser A. Hale, DVM, FAVD, Dipl AVDC