Will a Dog Tartar Spray Remove Tartar From Your Dog’s Teeth?
When it comes to managing your dog’s oral health, you have basically three choices: professional cleaning at the vet’s, a toothbrush with dog toothpaste, and a dog tartar spray. Each has its pluses and minuses.
If you opt to have your dog’s teeth professionally cleaned, the big plus is that after it’s over, his teeth will be clean. The procedure, however, is expensive, and cost is a consideration in these economic hard times. If tooth extractions are necessary or a course of antibiotics is prescribed to prevent a possible infection, the cost goes up. It can often run several hundred dollars. And vets recommend you get this procedure yearly.
More than the cost, the risk to your dog’s life by being put under anesthesia is not insignificant. Your dog isn’t going to obligingly lie there with his mouth open while the vet scales his teeth, so an anesthetic is necessary. The risk isn’t as low as you might think. Approximately 1 in 233 dogs dies under anesthesia. Compare that to 1 in 10,000 among humans.
Brushing is certainly very cost effective. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are relatively inexpensive. However, brushing is more a preventative than a tartar remover. If your dog already has a tartar buildup, brushing won’t do much to remove it. Dogs aren’t particularly cooperative when it comes to having something shoved into their mouth. So coverage may be hit or miss. On top of that, you are probably only going to be able to get the outside of the teeth, and tartar builds up on the inside too. As a side note, if you choose to brush your dog’s teeth, don’t use your toothpaste. There are ingredients in human toothpaste that can be harmful to dogs. Use a toothpaste formulated for dogs.
A dog tartar spray, such as DentaSure, is inexpensive, a six month supply costing approximately $30. It is easy to use. Simply spray in your dog’s mouth twice a day, concentrating on the heaviest areas of tartar buildup. Your dog will lick his lips, spreading the spray to coat all of his teeth. It is effective. After a couple of weeks you will notice the tartar buildup beginning to disappear. Depending on the amount of tartar on your dog’s teeth when you begin the applications, after several weeks, most, if not all, of the tartar will be gone. Then it’s just a matter of spraying two or three times a week to prevent the re-occurrence of tartar.
So, the answer to the question posed in the title of this article is “Yes.” A dog tartar spray will most definitely remove tartar from your dog’s teeth. And you will find that not only is it effective and inexpensive, but far and away the safest way to ensure your dog’s oral health.
