Gum disease and general dental disease have been shown to be some of the top health issues cats in the UK face in a recent study. This is why it is important to keep your cat’s dental health in tip top shape as best you can. As such you may decide that a dental diet could help maintain your cat’s oral health.

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Dental diets that work

To find a product with evidence, you can look here on the VOHC® Accepted Products for Cats. The Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) recommends that the ‘gold standard’ to maintaining oral health is brushing. And that daily chewing activities can also be effective in maintaining oral health. One study indicated that the daily addition of dental chews to a dry diet was effective in reducing plaque and calculus accumulation on tooth surfaces in cats, as well as reducing the severity of gingivitis. However, both brushing a cat’s teeth and encouraging them to chew can be tricky in some of our more… spirited cats!

Daily use of products that have been awarded the VOHC Seal will help to keep your pet’s teeth clean and the gum tissues and bone around the roots healthy.

How do dental diets work

In one study, dental deposits (46.0 vs. 14.2%), and periodontal disease (69.7 vs. 33.2%) were significantly more often absent in cats fed dry food, compared with cats fed soft food. 

However, as well as being dry diets, some specific dental diets have other features to support oral health. These commercial dental diets, such as those by Royal Canin or Hills, are available for cats and when fed as a complete diet have been shown to result in less plaque, calculus, and gingival inflammation than a control group of cats fed another commercial dry food.

These diets all have the VOHC seal of approval to say that they do help manage periodontal disease in cats.

Hills

Most standard dry pet foods immediately crumble when chewed. Hill’s t/d provides mechanical cleansing of the tooth, as it has a patented fibre matrix technology which allows the kibble to maintain contact with the tooth surface. Other than the fibre matrix there are no abrasives or active chemicals in the kibble. Hills also have a Hill’s Science Diet Oral Care, a clinically proven technology that reduces plaque & tartar build-up.

Royal Canin

Royal Canin’s dental diet has kibbles that are of a larger size than their standard kibble and this is claimed to have a mechanical plaque removing effect through the kibble texture shape. The ability of the Royal Canin dental diet to control dental accumulations is also maximised by the addition of sodium tripolyphosphate to the kibble. Sodium tripolyphosphate binds to salivary calcium, resulting in less of the mineral being available for calculus formation.

Purina 

Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets DH Dental Health Feline Formula was developed with a unique, crunchy kibble texture and has been proven to significantly reduce the accumulation of tartar and plaque – again the aim here is for mechanical cleaning of the tooth surface.

Top tips

  • Brushing is always the best way to maintain oral health so, if you have a kitten, start early with getting the cats accustomed to teeth brushing as part of their routine. Make it a positive experience.

What we see on the outside may not give us a full picture of dental and oral health. It is impossible to check below the gumline, or subgingival area, without a general anaesthetic and even dental X-Rays. Please follow your vet’s advice about dental care and please do not engage in ‘anaesthesia free’ dentals (although less common to see them being undertaken in cats) – we have an article on these here.

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