Opinion Essay on Dental Care: Healthy Mouth Means Happy Life

Title of Essay: “Healthy mouth means happy life”. Discuss the effects of dental disease on the welfare of domestic cats. Include in your discussion the causes of dental disease in cats and how we, as owners, can contribute to promoting oral health and welfare in our pet felines.

Dental care involves the cleaning and maintaining of the teeth, gums and tongue. To begin with, dental health is one of the most neglected health issues in animals. Most people believe that animals can look after their own teeth and so, are not inclined to clean the teeth and surrounding areas themselves. Most animals also make it very difficult to access their teeth, discouraging owners from attempting to clean them. Unless the serious disease is identified in animals by veterinarians, most diseases go unnoticed due to the animal’s ability to mask the pain or illness related to the issue with dental health.

Dental health must be properly managed in animals to avoid any discomfort. Not looking after an animal’s dental health can lead to a lot of problems including trouble eating, tooth loss and pain. It is necessary to look after any pet’s dental health. In household cats, dental issues can be hard to distinguish as cats are known to hide any pain. As a result, dental problems can be hard to notice, however, regular trips to the veterinary clinic can avoid most of these problems. A basic understanding of dental and oral anatomy can also help to notice any unusual things in your animals’ mouths. The first and most basic step in attempting to improve dental care in a household is convincing owners on the devastating effects of ignoring dental health. I do not think many owners realize that serious dental problems can lead to many diseases, not just in the mouth but also in the stomach (Fraser Hale, 2010).

In this essay, I will discuss the causes of dental disease and how we can eliminate diseases present in domestic cats and prevent any other diseases from developing. I will explain the importance of dental care in animals and how it affects domestic cats in detail. I aim to suggest ways to convince domestic cat owners how to make sure their pets’ teeth are well looked after. I would like to establish the horrifying effects on owners and their pets if dental care is not taken into consideration when looking after your animals’ health.

Dental health is important in all animals, but we will discuss dental importance in cats. Domestic cats under the Animal Welfare Act are “protected animals”. Under this act, “creatures in the possession or under the control of a human being” must be looked after in a manner that safeguards it welfare (Animal Health and Welfare Act, 2013). Any neglect or failure to look after the animal’s welfare is an offense under this act. Legally, owning any animal means you are responsible for the animal itself and its welfare. This includes ensuring it has food, water and adequate shelter as well as taking all precautions to ensure no pain or suffering comes of the animal due to its health, which includes dental healthcare. It is illegal to fail to provide the correct medication for your animal when it happens to fall ill. Dental disease is a result of an owner failing to obtain proper dental care, making it illegal under this act. The penalties of this act are severe and there is no way of getting out of them. Buying a pet is taking on the responsibility of this animal, if people can’t look after animals properly, they shouldn’t own them.

Dental care is so important in all animals, not just cats. Like humans, teeth and gums are necessary to chew food to allow us to obtain the nutrients we need. Sore and bleeding gums will discourage animals from eating as its too painful. Without the necessary treatment, weight loss may become a problem as well as diseases. This is obviously a result of not obtaining a balanced diet. Nutrition is important in all animals. In cats, not eating properly results in serious diseases such as kidney disease, cat flu or hyperthyroidism. These diseases can be triggered by poor nutrition. A trip to the veterinarian for a dental cleaning to ensure they don’t develop these diseases because of their teeth would eliminate poor dental care as a cause. This would help the veterinarian to quickly move on to other possible causes of such diseases. Cats have a delicate immune system and any diseases that weaken their immune system could become fatal. Therefore, dental care is very important.

Adult cats, if they have all teeth, should have 30 teeth all together. They should have twelve incisors, four canines, ten pre-molars, and 4 molars. Fourteen of these are on the bottom and sixteen are on the top. At around three or four months of age, these teeth will have emerged.

Kittens have 26 teeth but by four months of age, cats should have their full set of adult teeth. Cats' gums should be light pink in color if they are healthy gums. Red, bright pink or white gums is an indication of gum diseases such as gingivitis.

Other symptoms of dental diseases in cats include them grooming themselves less or not at all, bad breath or drooling (JaneA Kelly, 2018). Symptoms can be hard to recognize in domestic cats who live outside but it is important to keep an eye on your cat, just in case there is a problem.

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A major symptom that something is wrong with your domestic cat is a change in behavior. Cats tend to be more at ease when they’re not in pain, as any animal or human is. Any increased sensitivity to touch if often related to pain. Many people assume scratching or biting is related to anger but if your cat doesn’t usually behave like that, make sure to take a trip to the veterinarian. It has been proven that cats and dogs have pain thresholds that are very similar to humans (Fraser Hale, 2010). Domestic cats often hide their pain and continue to eat, even though there is chronic pain whilst chewing their food, due to their poor dental care. A domestic cat, or any cat would be much happier in life with no pain in their teeth or gums.

The causes of poor dental health are numerous. Dental disease is one of the commonest diseases veterinarians see in animals (Jan Bellows, VCA Hospitals, 2013). The main cause of cat dental issues is, unfortunately, human error. Cat owners are responsible for looking after their animals and neglecting their health causes disease. Education on why dental health, especially in Ireland should be made more aware. A natural cause of dental problems in domestic cats is natural tooth alignment or misalignment. This is when the cat's bite does not fit the way it is meant to. The top and bottom jaw do not fit into each other properly. This problem might not be obvious in kittens but as they grow and their teeth develop, the problem may worsen and become obvious to veterinarians and cat owners. Dental diseases such as periodontal and gingivitis are developed as it’s the body's immune response to the plaque build-up in a cat’s mouth over time.

The two main diseases related to plaque build-up and lack of dental care include gingivitis, periodontal and stomatitis. These can have very serious effects on the cat’s teeth, gums and behavior. The commonest disease seen in veterinarian practices is periodontal disease ( Jessica Vogelsang, DVM, 2019 ). By the age of 3, most cats seem to show signs of periodontal disease or have it already. The cause of this disease developing is a build-up of plaque and tartar on the cat’s teeth. Similar to humans, not brushing cats’ teeth can lead to dental diseases such as this one. The filthy plaque that has built up around the teeth spreads into the gums causing inflamed gums, severe pain when eating and in some cases tooth loss. Plaque develops as bacteria are present on the teeth and it is these bacteria that work their way into the gums as well as destroy surrounding tissue (VetStreet, 2014). When cats with periodontal disease are brought into practice, the first step is a thorough dental clean. Antibiotics for the gums, crown restoration or root canal procedures can be done. If these cannot save the tooth, they would have to be removed. Even though the cat would be missing teeth at least its mouth and gums wouldn’t be sore to eat.

Gingivitis is also a very commonly seen dental disease in cats. Gingivitis is a part of periodontal disease but without any bit of tooth loss. It is a disease that affects the gums, causing inflammation, redness and pain. This disease is also caused by a build-up of plaque where the bacteria migrate into the gums, causing infection. The pathogens associated with this disease attack cells that protect the gums from the teeth. When it damages these, the pathogens can access the connective tissue underneath, causing the cats immune response to activating inflammation as a response. Gingivitis does not just develop because of poor dental disease but also because of Feline Leukaemia Virus, severe kidney diseases and many other diseases (Dr. Bruce Kornreich, 2017). Signs of gingivitis include bleeding, sore, swollen gums as well as drooling and bad breath. Prevention of gingivitis includes brushing your cats’ teeth using specified cat toothpaste or if they already have it, a course of antibiotics. Although bad breath, red gums and refusal to eat could sound like dental disease, we must consider it could be cancer. It can affect any part of the mouth and develops quickly, often being in the advanced stages before it is noticed.

Dental diseases need to be taken seriously and the advice veterinarians give their clients needs to be carried out as instructed. Unfortunately, in Ireland and in many countries, feline dental disease isn’t taken very seriously.

In my opinion, feline dental diseases are not taken seriously in Ireland. The first step to fixing this is making sure owners are informed of the effects it has on cats. Owners who have experienced a bad case of, for example, periodontal disease can have devasting effects. Tooth loss is if the disease has affected them so badly before they got to the veterinarian’s practice but refusal to eat can become more serious. Owners who fail to notice their cat no longer eats properly can lead to drastic weight loss and low immunity. To make sure people know how serious dental diseases can be, I would suggest having information leaflets left in consulting and waiting rooms in practices with photos included of the devasting effects dental diseases can have on cats. If they are informed of the results of neglecting dental care, they might take the initiative to do the dental care work before it gets too serious. Veterinarians doing dental check-ups when cats come in to the practice for an unrelated disease can become efficient. They can inform the owner politely, show them the effects of leaving it untreated and prescribe a suitable method to help cure it. Offering dental check-ups for free will encourage more people to say yes and help reduce the number of cats who develop dental-related diseases. According to studies, 50 and 90% of cats older than four years of age suffer from some form of dental disease (Dr. Bruce Kornreich, 2017).

It is common knowledge that people often listen to celebrities and other people who are capable of influencing others. Famous veterinarians such as Noel Fitzpatrick could influence cat owners by telling them the serious effects of dental disease. The most important thing to remember when trying to influence people is remembering not to insult them. People who get offended when you're trying to explain the lack of dental care often to not follow up on your advice. A good way to advise people without being too personal is advertising. It would get the idea and importance of dental care across easily. Advertising is the non-paid, non-personal communication of information about a product through various media (William Murphy, 21st Century Business, 2016). With dental care being such a big problem and people not knowing about it, I think an informative advertising technique should be used. Through the internet to get the message across to young people, the television for people of all ages or newspapers, leaflets or magazines. Advertising is a good way of getting the message across. Pet owners could consult with veterinarians on the main information that needs to be put across and put an ad in the local radio or local newspaper.

Cat owners, once they are informed of the awful effects it can have and how much pain it causes their pets, I think they would act upon it. Veterinarians can offer the first dental clean for free and give a free toothpaste or toothbrush for the cat to encourage cat owners to continue the cleaning process. Cat owners inform others of how a daily dental clean at home can massively improve the health of a cat’s teeth. In Ireland, word of mouth is the fastest way news gets around anyway.

To conclude, I think that over time and a lot of work into dental care, it will become more aware in Ireland. The welfare of domestic cats is so important and should be taken very seriously and should be the most important thing concerning cats. Once cat owners know how important it is, I think the rate of periodontal diseases, gingivitis, etc. will decrease. Cat owners love their cats and would do anything to keep them happy. Keeping cats’ teeth will improve their quality of life by enabling them to eat properly and enjoy a pain-free life. Something so small as not brushing their teeth can lead to so many problems and pain. Some owners may not be able to access their cats' mouths due to the cat being feisty but there are other methods of cleaning cats’ teeth without using a toothbrush. Dental gels are easily used to rid cats’ mouths of bacteria and plaque and are the next best thing to brush (Maris Munkevics, Signe Munkevica, 2014).