Do some dogs just have bad teeth?

[codglvr]

I brush Balder's teeth regularly, and he gets marrow bones regularly. The thing is, he always has tartar build up and bad breath. He has had a dental before, and his teeth were bad again by the end of the week. Do some dogs just have bad teeth? Nyla bones and such are out as Saga demolishes them within 30 seconds flat .

[Judi W]

Is his bite correct so that the occlusion is proper? That can have an effect on how the mouth cleans itself. My vet believes that some dogs (some breeds more than others) have good mouth chemistry and others have poor mouth chemistry which can determine the cleanliness of their teeth as well. Also, marrow bones aside, choice of food would also have some bearing.

[K-9Girl]

This does not have to do with bad teeth, but.....I noticed that before I switched my dogs over to Canidae that they also had bad breath. Also, feeding your dog soft food will dirty the teeth faster. Feeding hard food helps to chip off plaque to some extent. What are you feeding?

Sara

[mark_sherry]

I read, and I don't know where, and I'm not sure if it's true, that if you give your dog a bone after he finishes eating, the gnawing process activates some chemical/enzyme activity that helps cleanse the teeth; however, for some reason, it has to be done after he eats. Kind of like a wolf gnawing on the remains of a carcass after finishing the meat. Like I said, I don't know if it's true.

[codglvr]

We have been feeding canidae for over a year now. I have never looked at his bite before to see if the occlusion is correct. I will have to look through my books to see if his bite is correct or not. Thanks for the ideas. I am thinking that Judy has a good point that some dogs may just have good mouth chemistry and others bad. I do have one cat that has just awful mouth chemistry.

[emorgan49]

i also have one kid (human kind) with bad mouth chemistry. He was always on a three month recall. Tarter builds up where the salivary glands are. In humans it's behind the lower front teeth and under the gum in the upper cheek on both sides back where the molars begin. Some people just have stickier saliva which leads to more tartar. Same with dogs??

[LORHEL]

Our girl has a severe underbite, (the lower front teeth stick out and sometimes the fang teeth on the side) she has marrow bones all the time, canidae, and dog biscuits...

But sometimes she has bad breath, no matter what.

[Zephyr]

I cleaned up Xev's teeth, which were tartar'd up when I got her [despite her young age!] from the shelter, by feeding her bones - both sterilized long beef bones that she gnawed on a lot and compressed rawhides. Also, she has Nylabone dental bones [the recalled one] which she never could shred, and they've worked well too. She likes them all, but the compressed rawhide best.

She also eats the same kibble each day - ProPlan Performance Chicken/Rice w/homemade chicken broth and meat [sometimes veggies]. 4 cups total each day. Her coat gleams, her teeth are WHITE again and her tartar is gone 98%. She stopped shedding [even after blowing her coat for 6 weeks in May/June] and has tons of energy/zest and health. Her breath smells better than most people and has no foul odor.

Try out that compressed rawhide [buy at Petfooddirect online by the bulk, it's cheaper]. She goes at those things like they're the best thing on the planet and she likes those Nylabones too.

She's never had a dental cleaning but her teeth became white in less than 6 weeks on the above plan. Go figure......

Payton

PS: I even have photos to prove it.