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Bella, a friendly, gentle yellow lab, arrived at AHNA for a dental care appointment in December. She is magnificently beautiful. Her family loves her dearly and takes excellent care of her. Without realizing the potential risk, her family bought what seemed like a simple toy for her to chew on, but it caused her great harm. The chew toy was a piece of antler, unfortunately commonly sold at pet stores and on the internet as a “natural” way to clean teeth and provide an enjoyable distraction and entertainment. Antlers, while a natural product, are much too hard for dogs to chew on.

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This article originally posted on the American Veterinary Dental College website

The teeth of dogs and cats usually fit together well enough to chew food without discomfort.  “Malocclusion” is present when a tooth or some teeth are not able to fit comfortably when the mouth is closed. In veterinary patients, management of malocclusion (which can include shortening of the crowns or extraction of maloccluding teeth, or orthodontic treatment to move the maloccluding teeth to a more comfortable position) is designed to...

It is important to be very careful about buying rawhide chews because some are toxic to pets. The safest policy is to buy rawhide chews that are made in the US from hides originating in the US, but you must be very careful in your selection in order to know where they actually come from. Very few companies make them from the hides of cattle that lived in the United States. You may see a bag of chews in the store with a red, white and blue top with US flags or stars on the package, but if you look closely you will see that although they are distributed by a US company, they may actually be...

By: Dr. Dave Thompson

Recently, an adorable little dog named Chance arrived with Mom to be examined and admitted for a dental cleaning and oral evaluation. This sweet boy is 11 years old and was so cute, timidly wagging his tail, a little greying in the face, and a little nervous, thus he kept an eye on Mom.

He received an injection to calm him and met Kelly C, the Registered Veterinary Technician who would be his nurse for the day, and all was well. His case is an important example of how permanent damage to the teeth and gums occurred because his Mom, a new client, had...