Story by Rebecca West
While February is National Pet Dental Health Month, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), “dental health should be a daily ritual for pet owners all year long.” That’s something your own veterinarian will wholeheartedly concur with. Yellow teeth, tartar buildup, and bad breath are all signs of diminished oral health. Keeping up with your pets’ dental care can not only improve their overall wellbeing but, in many cases, prolong their life.
Another thing to consider is that allowing your pets’ dental hygiene to slide can end up costing you a fortune in veterinary bills down the road. Accordingly, there are a plethora of products available now to make avoiding that problem a lot easier. For instance, there’s a powder containing brown algae and probiotics that is sprinkled on your dog’s food each day called ProBright. The ingredients also reportedly help reduce gum inflammation, leaving dogs with whiter choppers and fresher breath.
An additional tool you might want to include in your dental arsenal is a device known as Canident™, a tooth cleaner that operates without heat or the need for water or anesthesia. This dental scaler for dogs utilizes sonic vibrations to gently and effectively remove plaque and tartar, delivering immediate results without discomfort. The lack of a need for anesthesia in brachycephalic dogs like pugs and Frenchies is a huge plus. Discuss it with your vet.
But there’s another way you could benefit your canines’ canines that won’t cost you a dime. In fact, it will save you money in more ways than one. The gist is that, for years, you may have inadvertently contributed to your pets’ declining dental health by giving them tennis balls to play with. If you’re wrinkling your face up, you’re not alone. Few knew of the damage they were possibly inflicting until Texas-based veterinarian Hunter Finn sounded the alarm.
According to Finn, a vet who routinely shares pet care advice on TikTok, the dangers of tennis balls are not to be ignored. Why, you ask? The answer comes in two videos that have gone viral since they were originally posted. If you’re on the platform, perhaps you’ve seen them. For everyone else, they might come as a brutal surprise. In the first post, viewers are educated on a number of things they should never provide their furry friends, and tennis balls rank high on the list.
Unless you have a petite pooch with an equally small bite, who among us hasn’t played fetch with our own Fidos or Fifis using a bright yellow or green tennis ball? In his video, Finn explained via on-screen captioning that “over time, the felt [on tennis balls] is abrasive and will severely wear down your dog’s teeth,” advising pet owners to look for safer options instead.
He then shared a follow-up where he included images of a dog’s worn teeth while pointing out that this type of wear can eventually lead to a fortune in vet bills. The clip opens with the words, “Stop giving your dog tennis balls. Right now, you’re probably thinking, ‘Dr. Finn, how does [a tennis ball] harm my dog?’ Well, when you’re playing fetch with your dog and throwing this thing, it’s getting caught in saliva and dirt and sand and just basically turns into sandpaper.”
The course surface of the ball will then start to cause significant damage to the inside of a dog’s mouth as it moves around inside of it, he goes on to explain.
“As that ball turns in your dog’s mouth as it’s playing with it, and you’re grabbing it, and it’s being thrown and picked up multiple times…your dog’s teeth will start to look like this,” he points out while sharing an example of the damage via an image of a tooth depicting wear in the back of the animal’s upper canine.
Finn acknowledged that while the teeth don’t always need to be removed when they advance to that state, he strongly urged viewers to shop for safer options, such as plain rubber balls or smoother balls that won’t hold grit or sand when tossed about outdoors. Wearing teeth down in this manner leads to the loss of enamel, leaving teeth sensitive, weakened, and susceptible to decay.
If you’d like to see and hear for yourself just how abrasive tennis balls can become when played with outdoors, you can watch his TikTok through the link included here. We hope you’ll take his advice. https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.
