Dental Pads

Daily brushing of a dog's teeth with a tooth brush is what dental vets recommend; unfortunately most people - myself included - find that too time consuming. Some people use a "finger brush" to brush their dog's teeth. I do not have any experience with finger bushes, but I suspect that time-wise they are like using a tooth brush. Using a pre-soaked dental pad that I wrap around my finger and rub against my dog's teeth is quick and easy ... and does almost as good a job as brushing with a tooth brush. Because it takes less that a minute per dog, using a pre-soaked dental pad is something that I can do every day. (I do brush my dogs teeth once a week with a tooth brush as part of our weekly nail-cutting sessions.) Of course, my dogs get a treat - a Zuke mini - every time after I do their teeth.

You can purchase commercial dental pads. However when my favorite manufacturer of dental pads (Drs. Foster and Smith) discontinued their dental pads - and not finding any other commercial dental pad that I liked - I started making my own.

Here is how I make dental pads. I still have not found a good pad that I like. I want something thin but with texture. A fine gauze seems my best option so far. I pre-soak the pads in a dental rinse. Remember that it is the abrasive action of the pad on the teeth that does the most good; the dental rinse is just an extra.

The dental rinse I use is chlorhexidine 0.12 percent. You do not want to use chlorhexidine with a higher percentage.

[I have been down a rabbit's hole investigating various dental rinses - chlorhexidine, delmopinol, cetylpyridinium chloride, etc. I have talked with both my veterinary dentist and my human dentist, and read several scientific papers on the subject. I keep coming back to chlorhexidine as the best option. Chlorhexidine is what is used in most commercial dental pads.]

The brand of chlorhexidine that I currently purchase is "Dentahex Oral Rinse" and you can get it from chewy.com. If anyone knows a better (cheaper) source, please let me know.

And if anyone has a good suggestion for a dental pad, I will be happy to give it a try. Please let me know the brand name.

13 Jun 2020

Addendum (21 Nov 2020) So far the best pad that I have found is "Goodsell All Purpose Non Woven Gauze" that I purchased on Amazon. Use the words in quotes in the Amazon search box and it should come up. The gauze comes in a green and white package. You want the 2in by 2in non-sterile gauze.