Photo: Sharon Compton
TOOTH & PAW
ORAL HEALTH FOR OUR FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS If you’ve been listening to your dentist over the years, you know that good oral hygiene is not just for people, but for our pets as well. Robin Canuel from K9 Gentle Dental is an anesthetic-free dog tooth cleaner operating in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver since 2011. As it is for humans, a healthy mouth is a gateway for healthy life. “Bonus,” Canuel says. “It freshens their breath, so everyone wins.” Dogs don’t usually live long enough to get tooth decay or cavities, but they are five times more prone to gum disease than humans and
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they can crack teeth or try to eat something that lodges in their mouths. Then they often ignore those problems. Canuel says, “We’ve seen it all. A stick stuck up in the roof of their mouth, infections in the palate from hair getting stuck in the grooves, teeth split in half and both pieces still hanging... the amount of things that dogs will live with without complaint is bizarre, but if you touch their paw the wrong way and they’re screaming on the ground!”
The biggest thing missing from most people’s health care routine for their dogs is the diligent brushing. “It’s really the hardest part!” She says it can be a fight at first, but if you stick with the training, it gets easier. If they run away from you, you need to drag them back to your tooth-cleaning spot and give them at least a scrub of the toothbrush. As with any other training, it also helps if you start as early as possible.
