# picking off the plaque



## Tink (Oct 14, 2009)

I don't know if you remember, but in one of my posts, I mentioned how I'd managed to pick off a bunch of plaque from Tango's teeth, using just my fingernail. Just prior to that, I'd taken some pics of his nasty teeth, because I'd just started using the Petzlife gel, and I wanted some kind of pictorial comparison to see how well it worked over time, instead of just relying on my memory.

I took more pics later, after I'd picked off a bunch of the plaque. It's really quite amazing the difference, considering all I did was use my fingernail to pry off chunks of the plaque!

Here are the before pics. They're blurry, sorry, but there's still no question how nasty his teeth had become....and he had a dental 11 months ago! 



















And here are the after pics! Huge difference, huh? And that's after only the first go-round, where I accidentally pried off a chunk, and I thought Wow! I'll see if I can do more! And I just picked at each tooth for a second, and chunks came off! As you can see, there are still bits of plaque sticking to his teeth, but after I took these pics I spent more time picking off those bits, too, so that all that was left was some residual stuff right at his gumline. And if I'd had one of those scalers that Tracy mentioned, I think I could have gotten it too.



















I'm wondering if the plaque came off as easily as it did because I'd been using the Petzlife gel for about a week at that point. Unfortunately I have no comparison as to how easy it would have been to remove that plaque without any of the gel benefits. And it may not have helped at all, I just don't know. Anyway, I'm pretty impressed! His dental got rid of the last of the bits that I couldn't get to around his gumline. 

And I'm now on a dental regimen for Tango and Jazz which includes brushing every other day, applications of the Petzlife gel every other day, chewing on bully sticks.....well, Jazz anyway, Tango has no interest. I'm going to purchase some of that Tropiclean water additive too, and as soon as I can find a butcher or grocery store that stocks rib bones, I'll get those...maybe Tango will be more enthusiastic about chewing on actual raw bones than he is the bully sticks and other chewy things I've tried to tempt him with. 

My goal is to at the very least reduce the number of dentals they need, and at best to eliminate the need for them entirely!


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## MChis (Oct 13, 2009)

That's what I've been doing to my pups for quite a while. Almost had a dental done on Matilda at 15 months because despite brushing her teeth were horrid. One day I picked with my fingernail...realized how easy it was to get them clean so I grabbed a dental pick & cleaned them all off. Now when they need cleaning this is what I do...which isn't often at all since they get rmb's. But still, much cheaper than any dentals! BTW, we do not use petzlife gel or anything else. But I'm sure the gel makes the build up softer perhaps? I really never had a problem scraping w/o using anything though.

Tangos teeth I'm sure look amazingly pearly & white! There is a huge difference in the pics!!


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## Brodysmom (Jan 8, 2009)

Wow, that is an amazing before and after!!! Woo Hoo! I'm very impressed that just your fingernail could get that much crud off. That's really great. I bet once you use a scaler, you'll be able to get most of the rest of it off. Just think how they do your own teeth at the dental cleanings, and that's how I do Brody's. I start just up under the gumline and then pull down and then gently scrape around each tooth, paying special attention to the gumline where the build up occurs. Then brush throughly with petzlife and voila - you've just avoided an expensive dental!! YAY!


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