Keeping your cat’s gums and teeth healthy involves regular brushing (preferably daily) and veterinarian-recommended dental cleanings. Brushing can be challenging, and dental cleaning involves anesthesia and is costly. Can any of the sprays, foods, and additives claiming to protect your cat’s teeth and gums help?
As with so many things in veterinary medicine and pet health, it depends, says Emilia Chrostek, DVM, resident in dentistry and oral surgery at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dental Diets: Helpful
“I usually recommend starting a dental diet if a periodontal assessment shows significant periodontal disease. This hopefully will help slow the progression of periodontal disease,” says Dr. Chrostek. “Given that periodontal disease is highly prevalent after 2 to 3 years of age, it also isn’t wrong to start patients on it especially if they are pre-disposed. However, daily tooth brushing is always a concurrent recommendation along with the food.”
A variety of dental foods are available for cats, both prescription and over the counter. Some of these foods are designed with a matrix inside each kibble that is intended to scrape plaque off the teeth as the cat chews. Others have supplements added to chemically break down plaque and calculus.
Peer-reviewed studies are limited for dental foods in cats, just as with so many other feline products and medications. There are five different foods, however, that have the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) Seal of Acceptance. Two are prescription diets and three are over-the-counter products.
To earn the VOHC Seal, products need to be proven to be effective, but the process isn’t as thorough as a peer-reviewed study. “It is important to note that the VOHC itself does not test the products, but has set protocols for clinical studies for manufacturers in testing the efficacy of products,” says Dr. Chrostek. “An approved product must have achieved at least a 20% reduction in plaque and/or calculus, with a statistically significant difference, for a product to be awarded the seal.” These trials are often run by the manufacturers of the products themselves.
While dental foods have shown promise to slow the buildup of or reduce plaque and calculus, there is a big difference between a “statistically significant” improvement and a perfectly clean mouth. No study to date has shown that dental foods completely prevent or resolve dental disease in cats.
So, should you consider dental food for your cat? “In my opinion, dental diets likely work in conjunction with the gold standard of tooth brushing, but it’s hard to say if a diet without tooth brushing helps,” says Dr. Chrostek.
Water Additives, Sprays: Maybe
Water additives are products that you can add to your cat’s drinking water that help promote healthy teeth and gums. Like dental foods, using these products is easy to do as part of your daily routine since you do not have to directly handle your cat to get some benefit.
“There really is not much literature on this recently,” says Dr. Chrostek. “The water additive study for cats was done in 2006, which is quite a while ago. This was a parallel crossover trial where cats were given fresh drinking water treated with xylitol at 0.005%. When cats had access to the treated water, each individual cat as well as the whole group had significantly less plaque and calculus accumulations than when they had access to untreated water. Plaque and calculus scores decreased by about 50%. However, this is quite an older study. There are a couple more recent ones for dogs.”
Most water additives available today are made with enzymes that target and break down plaque. If you do come across a product containing xylitol, don’t panic. While xylitol is highly toxic to dogs, its effect on cats is uncertain and the amounts used in dental water additives are extremely low. If the product is made specifically for pets by a reputable company, it should be safe for your cat.
When you first start using a water additive for your cat, make sure that he is drinking the treated water. Most cats do not seem to mind, but you want to be sure that your cat is getting adequate hydration.
Dental sprays are products that can be sprayed into your cat’s mouth to help prevent or reduce plaque buildup.
The benefit to sprays is that you know your cat is getting the product in his mouth. The downside is that you must make that happen. First, you must remember to apply the spray as recommended by the manufacturer; and second, you must find and catch your cat to give it. There is one VOHC accepted oral spray for cats.
“In my opinion, the verdict is out on whether water additives and sprays work in cats,” says Dr. Chrostek.
The Gold Standard
The gold standard for dental care in cats is daily toothbrushing and regular dental cleanings under anesthesia, much like in human dental health.
While dental foods, water additives, and sprays do not replace the need for toothbrushing and dental cleanings, they can be used as part of your cat’s dental health plan. Attacking dental and gum disease from multiple angles often yields better results than just using one strategy and may buy you more time between dental cleanings.
Dr. Emilia Chrostek is a resident in dentistry and oral surgery at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
