For the past decades, brushing your dog’s teeth on a daily basis and having his teeth cleaned by the veterinary dentist on a yearly basis is the “only” way to promote good oral hygiene and avoid any potential gum diseases.

Thanks to advance research and technology, a lot of manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon and created products to help solved dog dental problems without having to brush your dog’s teeth on daily basis. You don’t have to search far and wide for them as any half decent pet stores will carry some of these products—from dog food or toys to cleaning agents.

I don’t claim to have tried all the products available in the market but enough to break my dogs’ piggy bank (yes, my dogs have their own piggy bank for rainy days). Call me cynic or old-school, no dog food (cooked, packed, or raw) or chew treats or toys can completely remove plague and tartar or stop them from forming without any brushing throughout a dog’s entire life.

Brushing Your Dog’s Teeth Daily Isn’t Enough

Even with daily brushing (regular dog toothpaste and toothbrush), plague and tartar will still be formed overtime. The difference is the amount of buildup, or how healthy the gum is, or how fresh your dog’s breath is. Be honest, if you don’t have the habit of brushing your teeth after every meal would you be “bothered” to do so for your dog before every bedtime for 10 years or so?

Instead to trashing what didn’t work, I’ll only share what I had tried that do the job of removing plague, tartar, improve gum health, and avoid going under anesthesia like dental scaling. Let me be clear on this, I’m not at all against professional dental cleaning by veterinary dentist but as dog ages it would be best to avoid unnecessary anesthesia as much as possible in case of any health complications. I’ll also illustrate how to use these dental care cleaning products for maximum benefits or speedy recovery especially those with bad dental problems.

PetzLife and ProDen

PetzLife Oral Care Dental Products: PetzLife has 3 oral care dental products—two of which are in gel form (original and salmon favor) and the other one is a spray. All of these products do what they claim to do but I find the gel gets the result much faster plus you’ll do your dog a great service if you give him a gentle massage along the gum line.

Although it states that brushing is not necessary but I find it helps to speed up the process especially if your dog has heavy tartar buildup; nevertheless don’t expect miracles such as complete disappearance of plague and tartar within a couple of weeks. They will eventually come off. I tested it on some of my neighbors’ aged dogs with heavy buildups, results varies, at best the third week. Having said, you’ll notice your dog’s breath is so much fresher the following day after the first application.

Leba III Dental Spray: Even though Leba III is just as effective as PetzLife (if not better) but due to the hefty price tag (almost 3x the cost and half the volume of PetzLife), I recommend PetzLife Oral Care Dental. Moreover, PetzLife gives you two options—gel or spray or maybe both.

ProDen PlaqueOff: My dogs have been using ProDen for a few years now, it does what it claims to do but less effective and takes a longer time to see results compare to PetzLife. However, I find ProDen gives my dogs a better and healthier gum.

Unlike PetzLife, ProDen should be added into your dog’s food (dry or wet) on a daily basis. Only ½ a scoop (diameter of the spoon is 1cm and ½cm deep) is needed for small dogs. The 60g bottle—only $22—goes a long way, very economical.

All the above dental products—PetzLife, Leba III, and ProDen—are made of natural ingredients so no worries of your dog ingesting any artificial chemical. I won’t rehash what was being stated (at great length) on these products, so do yourself a favor and go read their writeups.

Best Ways To Provide Good Dental Care For Dog

Although I highly recommend PetzLife and ProDen to combat plague and tartar buildup and avoid potential gum disease but I don’t suggest them as substitutes for veterinary checkup. You may not have to do on a yearly basis but maybe once every two to four years that if you keep providing good oral home care. In a long run, these oral home practices can drastically reduce your vet bills and may even eliminate those risky dental procedures.

For maintenance, I alternate both. When the days I don’t apply PetzLife on my dogs, I use ProDen. These days, my vet sees lesser and lesser of my dogs in return this helps me to replenish their piggy bank faster than I can count those rainy days!