Are you considering, or is your veterinarian recommending, removing all — or even some — of your cat’s teeth?
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It’s one thing if the teeth are rotten and infected (that’s bad oral hygiene). It’s something else when they are calling it “resorptive lesions” and wanting to pull every tooth as so-called prevention. We’re talking about resorptive lesions in this article.
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Anybody’s cat have so-called resorptive lesions. Looks a little bit like the gums over growing on the teeth. And because it is gum tissue, it can be a little bit sensitive.
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So western medicine wants to take out all the teeth to deal with this!
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Every
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Single
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Tooth
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But then when you look at the research for how effective it is, 30% of cats still have problems with their mouth, even after taking the drastic step of removing their teeth.
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So I find this course of action incredible cruel, extreme, painful, expensive and unacceptable.
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Let’s put this into human perspective with a little analogy:
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Let’s assume I have a toothache and go to the dentist. Can you imagine if the dentist says we need to pull all of my teeth and put in dentures? Rather than fix the one cavity? Extreme, right?
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So I know cats can be difficult. I’ve had a lot of cats in my life. And I understand as parents of four-legged animals, we don’t always brush their teeth every day. We humans brush our teeth twice a day, hopefully floss once a day, and we go to the dentist twice a year. And still our teeth are dirty.
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Here’s another analogy:
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Remember the last time you went out of town, but you forgot your dental floss? And you figured you were only going to be gone for three days and it would be fine when you get back home? And then you got back home and start flossing again and your gums were really sore and bled? Even though it had only been three days?!
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Obviously, our cats don’t floss their teeth and we don’t floss their teeth for them. (I’m honestly not sure how we would do it.) But we don’t even brush their teeth every day. So think about your own gums when you went three days without dental floss, and they already got a little bit swollen. And now look at your cat who has gone many months or years of life and never had his or her teeth and gums touched. And we wonder why their gums are swollen and inflamed!
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By labeling it as “resorptive lesions” we literally say that the cat is allergic to his teeth… But maybe this is a case of needing some serious oral hygiene.
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So what are these resorptive lesions? Put simply, it’s an overgrowth of gum over the tooth due to lack of good oral hygiene. And there can be nerves and blood supply in that overgrown gum. Therefore, it makes the tissue (flesh) fragile. And what causes that overgrowth? Lack of brushing and flossing. But — Most incredibly important — your biggest contributor was an inflammatory diet.
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.I find many cats who have gum lesions are allergic to something in their food. (Not their saliva or their teeth.) Everybody likes to blame chicken, but it’s not always that simple. Any ingredient in that food can be the culprit. And — really importantly — we humans don’t brush our cats teeth.
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Let’s imagine the universe where we humans had all the time in the world, and we could brush our cats teeth daily.
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Every.
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Single.
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Day.
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And we could feed them fresh pet food that had no byproducts or inflammatory ingredients. They probably wouldn’t need all of their teeth pulled!
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Removing their teeth is an extreme reaction. It’s a way for the veterinarians office to make really big money.
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Can you imagine the amount of pain it would cause to have every tooth in your head pulled especially when many of the teeth are not loose or infected? These kitties simply need their gums cleaned on a daily basis!
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So think of the pain. Or the fundamentals: Imagine the change of the anatomy when a mouth that supposed to have teeth all of a sudden doesn’t have teeth. And the cats continue to eat the same crappy food. No wonder 30% of cats still have problems.
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So.
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What to do?
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Gotta fix the food. Figure out what is causing the inflammation.
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Then slowly. Gently. Every day. Use a soft baby tooth brush, or a gauze pad, and gently clean the outside of the teeth with coconut oil. And if the teeth are really bad, then your kitty should have a dental appointment. And the loose teeth should be extracted. But absolutely not, no way in the world, do we pull every tooth in these baby’s heads.
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Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.