Between 80 and 90% of dogs over three have periodontal disease
It is the most common disease in companion animals, it is painful long before it is visible, and the only home intervention that works is the one almost nobody does.
Editorial placeholder for an article about periodontal disease in dogs
Dental disease is the least fashionable subject in pet wellness and comfortably the most consequential. It affects the overwhelming majority of adult dogs, it hurts, and animals conceal it almost perfectly — a dog with significant periodontal pain will keep eating, because the alternative is not eating.
That concealment is the whole problem. By the time an owner notices, the disease is not early.
80–90% of dogs over the age of 3 have some component of periodontal disease. It is worse in smaller breeds and the incidence rises with age.
Periodontal disease has been linked to liver and heart disease, and the visible signs — bad breath, bleeding, altered eating — typically appear only at advanced stages.
Anaesthesia-free dentistry is not dentistry
The disease is below the gumline. Scaling the visible surface of a tooth in a conscious animal produces a cleaner-looking tooth and leaves the pathology exactly where it was — while making the problem harder to see. Professional guidance is unambiguous that assessment and treatment require general anaesthesia, because probing, radiographs and subgingival work are not possible without it.
Owners are often, reasonably, frightened of anaesthesia in an older animal. That fear is worth raising directly with a veterinarian, who can talk about pre-anaesthetic screening and monitoring — rather than resolving by choosing a procedure that does not treat the disease.
Prevention requires both daily brushing at home and professional cleaning under general anaesthesia. Neither alone is sufficient.
A conscious scale produces a cleaner-looking tooth and leaves the disease exactly where it was.
The unglamorous answer
Daily brushing, with veterinary toothpaste rather than human toothpaste, is the intervention with the evidence behind it. Not weekly. The plaque cycle is measured in hours.
Most animals will accept it if it is introduced gradually and never becomes a fight. Most owners stop within a fortnight. Being realistic about that is more useful than pretending otherwise: a minute a day, at the same point in an existing routine, is the version that survives.
The register, in one place. Each claim is graded individually because a single article legitimately contains settled consensus and open questions in the same paragraph — the citations and the stated limits sit with each claim above.
80–90% of dogs over the age of 3 have some component of periodontal disease. It is worse in smaller breeds and the incidence rises with age.
Prevention requires both daily brushing at home and professional cleaning under general anaesthesia. Neither alone is sufficient.
Periodontal disease has been linked to liver and heart disease, and the visible signs — bad breath, bleeding, altered eating — typically appear only at advanced stages.
TIMOMAX did not conduct this research. This article summarises the work below; the principal source is Riney Canine Health Center, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
- 1Principal sourcePeriodontal diseaseRiney Canine Health Center, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine·Veterinary institution
- 2WSAVA Global Dental GuidelinesWorld Small Animal Veterinary Association·Professional guideline
This is general education, not advice about your animal. TIMOMAX is not a veterinarian and cannot examine anything. If something has changed about your animal, that is a question for a veterinary practice — and most will answer it on the phone.