Brushing your cat’s teeth is the most effective way to reduce dental plaque and maintain long-term oral health. Like in people, brushing will not only prevent plaque and tartar build-up, it will also promote healthy gums and reduce bad breath. Almost 75% of cats over three years of age could have tooth and gum disease, so it’s something to take seriously and to ask your vet about when you have your cat checked.

The gold standard is brushing your cat’s teeth for about one minute each day. Dental home care can be started at any age, but the younger your cat is when the training is started, the easier it is. Kittens usually do not take long to get used to brushing, whereas older cats may need a more gradual approach. While not all cats will tolerate it, many will.

Dental home care is often started after a cat has had his teeth cleaned and polished by the vet under general anaesthetic. IAllow a few days for the mouth to heal and for inflammation to settle down before starting dental home care. Many cats eat multiple small meals a day, and you may also prefer to give your cat some food as a reward after brushing the teeth, so timing is not critical.

Never use human toothpaste for your cat. Specific animal dental products are readily available. In New Zealand, Virbac’s specific cat toothbrushes are no longer available, though. We find that the BabySonic electric toothbrush replacement brush heads for babies, available at the pharmacy, are almost as good, see picture below. Use a separate toothbrush for each cat, as saliva can be a major route for cross-infection.

Use Virbac’s specific CET pet toothpaste. We find that the poultry flavour is most popular in cats.

Letting your cat get used to tooth brushing is best done in four steps:

Step one:

Whenever your cat is happy and relaxed, gently massage its cheeks, making small circular movements, so it gets used to its mouth being touched. The movements will also stimulate the production of saliva, which helps keeping the teeth clean.

Step two:

After about a week, you can then gently put your index finger on your cat’s teeth, and start gentle rubbing. Put your finger in the corner of its mouth and once it’s okay with that you can then push back a bit further. You’ll find the largest (pre) molars are a bit further down the mouth than where the lips end. The large premolars (especially in the upper jaw) tend to get the most tartar build-up, so they are the most important to brush.

Step three:

After about another week, you can put some toothpaste on your finger and repeat the steps. You can also use a thin swab, wrapped around your index finger, or a cotton bud.

Step four:

The last step is using the toothbrush with toothpaste.

Try to concentrate on the outside of the upper jaw. The lower jaw often doesn’t have much tartar build-up, unless there have been extractions in the upper jaw. When you first start to brush there may be some bleeding of the gums. This is common, and you will find that as you brush more regularly the bleeding will stop as the gums become healthier.

Brushing for one minute a day would be ideal. Do a few strokes on each side, and keep alternating. You just need a small amount of toothpaste (covering 25-50% of the brush): push it in the bristles a little bit, so it doesn’t flick everywhere once you start brushing. If you can, sit on your knees on the ground, feet together, with your cat between your knees, so you have good control. Do something pleasant afterwards when your cat has been good.

Link:

https://icatcare.org/advice/how-to-brush-your-cats-teeth/