Dental diseases in cats. Causes and symptoms. Disease prevention.

Providing competent care for the cat’s oral cavity is an obligatory concern of the owner. Teeth are intended for different purposes - with their help the pet feeds, defends itself and attacks the victim. Various dental problems and the development of dental diseases are a common problem. Therefore, it is very important to take measures as early as possible to prevent health problems, as well as promptly carry out therapy if necessary to avoid complications.

Plaque, tartar, and tooth and gum disease can be prevented. The condition of your pet's teeth and its overall health largely depends on the correct organization of oral care. Correct actions in this direction and regular veterinary examinations are important components of health.

Cat's dental system

The organization of the animal's dental system has its own distinctive features. It consists of the following teeth:

• incisors – located in front, with their help the pet captures prey;
• fangs - designed for tearing prey;
• premolars - used for chewing food;
• Molar teeth - designed for crushing food.

From birth, animals have no teeth. After about two weeks, the first incisors appear, followed by fangs and root teeth. Teeth erupt approximately until the end of the first month of life. In total, a cat has 26 baby teeth - 14 at the top and 12 at the bottom.

Between four and eight months, baby teeth are replaced by permanent teeth. During the same period, 4 more teeth grow. In total, an adult animal has 30 teeth - 16 at the top and 14 at the bottom.

How to prevent

The easiest way to prevent an unpleasant situation is regular checks with a veterinarian.
Bring your cat to the doctor at least once every two months for a routine examination and teeth cleaning. It is better to examine kittens and older animals more often. To prevent plaque from appearing, give your cat special cleansing biscuits, especially if he eats exclusively soft food. Check the condition of the enamel periodically. When plaque appears, brush your animal’s teeth with cat toothpaste and a brush. These devices can be purchased from your veterinarian.

Dental diseases in cats

Cats often have dental problems, and older pets are especially susceptible to this problem. In this case, caries rarely develops, more often - gingivitis and periodontitis.

There are various factors in the development of dental diseases. The most common ones are the following:

• poor nutrition;
• lack or improper care;
• hereditary factors;
• some infectious diseases.

The following symptoms indicate the presence of dental problems:

• bad breath;
• inflammation of the gums, redness;
• drooling (sometimes);
• change in natural color;
• deterioration of behavior – anxiety, aggression;
• loss of appetite, changes in the process of eating.

It is worth starting treatment for diseases as early as possible in order to avoid complications and restore the joy of life to your pet. Just like in humans, cats' teeth can hurt.

Insidious periodontitis: crept up unnoticed, left without a tooth

Periodontitis is the next stage of inflammation after pulpitis. The infection is localized at the apex of the tooth root and surrounding tissues. The disease is often asymptomatic, but without timely help it leads to tooth loss.

Causes:

• Untreated pulpitis. If a tooth hurts and then stops, it means that the inflammation has entered a chronic stage. Chronic pulpitis will slowly spread throughout the tooth and turn into periodontitis.
• Pulpitis treated using outdated methods. Before the advent of the apex locator, there was nothing to measure the length of the root canal, and the doctor acted blindly. If the canal is not completely treated and particles of infected pulp remain in it, complications arise. To avoid this, the doctor may have overdone it and brought the dental material beyond the root apex. Over the years, a focus of infection sometimes develops around a lump of paste.
• Tooth injury. A common problem in active children. Due to injury (the incisors are often affected), the pulp dies, and periodontitis develops after this. In fact, the reason is the same pulpitis that was not noticed and not treated in time.

Types of periodontitis

The most aggressive is granulating periodontitis, which very quickly spreads to neighboring tissues. With this diagnosis, most often the tooth cannot be saved.

In the granulomatous type of the disease, the inflammation site has a hard shell, and inside it is filled with pus. Depending on the size, these neoplasms are called granuloma (up to 5 mm), cystogranuloma or radicular cyst (more than 1 cm).

Thus, granuloma and tooth root cyst are manifestations of chronic periodontitis.

Diagnostics

Do not confuse fistula with stomatitis. The fistula looks like a pimple, is located on the gum near the roots of the tooth, and does not hurt when pressed. If a fistula appears, contact your dentist as soon as possible.

The doctor can suspect a problem before the formation of a fistula or gumboil based on complaints. It is very important that the patient describes all the symptoms and does not hesitate to complain about mild, unexpressed, occasional pain and discomfort.

X-rays help to accurately establish the diagnosis. Periodontitis is visible even on a small targeted photograph. Next, to plan treatment, the dentist will suggest taking a panoramic image (all teeth in one frame) or a computer tomogram (a three-dimensional image of the dental system).

CT - 3D computer tomogram

allows you to see the type of periodontitis, the location and size of cystogranuloma, and give a prognosis for treatment.

Positive dynamics

visible on a repeat tomogram 2 years later

From all sides

The advantage of CT is the ability to examine the tooth and the tissue around it from different angles

Treatment

Depending on the stage and form of the disease, the doctor will select the optimal method.

1. Therapeutic treatment. Typically, three visits to the dental office are required.

• Urgent Care. The dentist will remove the source of inflammation: clean and disinfect the canals using medications and laser sterilization. If necessary, the doctor will install a drainage to drain the pus.
• Treatment of tooth canals and installation of a temporary filling. If there are doubts that the immune system will cope with the remaining microorganisms, the dentist may prescribe antibiotics, physiotherapy, rinses and medicinal baths.
• Tooth restoration. At the last visit, the dentist will take an x-ray to make sure that the inflammation has been removed. After this, you can begin filling and restoring the aesthetics and chewing function of the tooth.
• Observation. We can talk about the positive dynamics of the tissues surrounding the tooth after 1-2 years based on the results of an x-ray examination.

2. Tooth-preserving operations. Sometimes conservative methods are not enough. A dental surgeon can perform a cystectomy (removal of the cyst) or apex resection (cutting off part of the tooth along with the cyst).

3. Tooth extraction. In advanced stages, it will not be possible to completely defeat foci of infection. Attempts to save a tooth will lead to large financial expenses and jeopardize neighboring teeth. The best solution would be to install an implant in place of the affected tooth.

If a tooth is left without treatment, it will be removed prematurely. The inflammation will grow and go into an acute stage, and at the most unfortunate moment.

Doctors call chronic periodontitis a ticking time bomb. Exacerbation is provoked by stress, exertion, hypothermia or climate change. That is, it will happen on a long-awaited trip to the sea, while working on an important project, before an exam, or during an infectious disease.

Periodontitis in children

In a child, periodontal inflammation can develop on both milk and permanent teeth. Features of childhood periodontitis:

• high flow rate,
• severe symptoms (temperature, pain, swelling, possible suppuration),
• increased risk of complications. If urgent measures are not taken, the rudiments of permanent teeth will suffer.

Treatment follows the same scheme as for adults. If there is less than a year left before a baby tooth falls out or the roots have already resolved, the pediatric dentist will suggest removing the tooth.

Prevention

Simple and inexpensive measures will reduce the risks of periodontitis and tooth loss.

• Maintain good oral hygiene.
• Eat right. Excess carbohydrate foods provoke the development of pathogenic microorganisms.
• Contact a specialist for dental treatment in a timely manner. Come for a routine examination every six months, even if nothing hurts. Voice all complaints.
• Treat with understanding the doctor’s suggestion to undergo a panoramic radiography or computed tomography. Complete information will allow you to notice and cure the disease.

For expert assistance in writing the article and providing examples of work, we thank dentist-therapist Olga Yuryevna Yuryeva.

Development of plaque and tartar

Nature gave cats white teeth. All kinds of shades of gray and yellow indicate a lack or improper care.

Plaque deposition occurs as follows. Pathogenic microorganisms live and multiply in the film of saliva that covers the teeth. Over time, there are more of them, the film thickens and turns into plaque. Most often it is located on the canines and back teeth. Over time, it turns into stone, with certain factors accelerating its formation. Among them:

• the diet contains only soft food;
• incorrect position of teeth;
• violation of salt metabolism.

If plaque is not removed, it can lead to various pathologies - teeth rot, teeth fall out, and problems with gums arise. During self-examination, it is difficult to completely detect plaque - only the areas that are above the gum are visible.

You can remove plaque with a special toothbrush, but not every pet will like this procedure and will tolerate it calmly. There are also special additives for drinking water that prevent tartar deposits.

How to treat

You should not self-medicate. No herbs or folk remedies will help, and often will only harm the pet. Giving a cat human painkillers is not the best idea, since it is difficult to calculate the dosage of the active substance. Therefore, if your cat has dark plaque, bleeding gums or teeth falling out, take her to the veterinarian. The doctor will remove the stone, pull out the aching tooth, and tell you what medications to give to the suffering pet. Complex procedures are performed under general anesthesia or local anesthesia.

Gingivitis in cats

This disease means inflammation, bleeding of the gums, the appearance of cracks and ulcers. It is often accompanied by excessive salivation and a repulsive odor from the mouth.

Therapy involves removing plaque and stones from teeth. For this purpose, special products are used - ointments and gels, which are applied to the surface of the gums (Zubastic, Metrogyl Denta, Dentavedin).

Prevention of gingivitis involves regular care - brushing teeth using cat toothbrushes and toothpastes. It is also useful to give your pet dry food to prevent the formation of deposits on the teeth.

Is it possible to cure pulpitis and how are nerves removed: types of anesthesia

As mentioned earlier, pulp inflammation is an extremely painful pathology, which primarily affects the nerve endings inside the oral cavity. The process of its treatment necessarily includes an operation to select a high-quality antiseptic that is suitable for a particular person. Moreover, the drug is applied to the desired places using various methods:

• application;
• infiltration;
• conductive;
• stem

The anesthetics used are traditional pairs of lidocaine and novocaine, as well as more advanced and modern formulations: Ultracaine, Ubistezin, Septanest, and so on.

Development of periodontitis

This disease involves inflammation of the tissues around the root and develops due to many factors. The most common are bruises, inflammation, cracks in the pet’s mouth. The main symptoms are swelling of the area around the teeth, pain, as well as refusal to eat, changes in behavior. A tooth located in the area of ​​inflammation may become loose.

Therapy involves the use of special disinfectant solutions. The pet’s mouth is washed with such liquids. A good effect can be achieved using an infusion of calendula flowers - the herbal preparation effectively eliminates inflammatory processes and kills microbes. With purulent-diffuse periodontitis, tooth extraction is most often resorted to.

What treatment is prescribed?

How to treat with drugs?

A veterinarian treats a cat’s sick and yellow teeth. Conservative therapy is carried out at the initial stages of the disease, its main goals are:

• eliminate inflammation;
• destroy the infection;
• relieve pain;
• prevent the spread of the pathological process.

Effective treatment involves the use of the following groups of drugs:

In some situations, prescribing antibacterial therapy to an animal is justified.

• antibiotics;
• antiseptics;
• non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
• painkillers;
• vitamins and immunorestoratives.

The following dental ointments help fight inflammation and swelling:

• "Metrogil Denta";
• "Dentavidin";
• "Nibbler."

Surgery

If the disease is advanced, the tooth has become black and cannot be treated conservatively, it is removed, and the wound is treated with an antiseptic solution. After surgery, it is necessary to monitor the health of the oral cavity, carry out antibacterial irrigation, and take antibiotics to prevent infectious inflammation.