How often should I brush my cat’s teeth?

So the veterinary answer is that you should brush your cat’s teeth every day. The human response is we would love it if you would try to brush your cat's teeth. I think I’ve had two cats, maybe three in here whose owners honestly brushed their cats’ teeth. It's pretty rare, and it’s a pretty rare cat who will allow that. Cats tend to be a little persnickety and harder to deal with, but they make seafood flavor toothpaste. So if you're interested, we can work with you on that.

How often do you brush your teeth? We’d love that to be the number of times you brush your cat's teeth. But really though, most cats, my cat included, are not interested in me brushing her teeth. Some cats are excellent at brushing. And you can kind of play around with different techniques; whether you use a tiny toothbrush or the little finger brushes, or even a little gauze pad, you can let them mess or chew on certain things with the toothpaste on it. In an ideal world, all joking aside, brushing is recommended if your cat does allow that. It's great for dental care. And several times a week would be the recommendation, but we don't want people getting hurt. We don't want to stress the cats out and force it upon them. We can try other little things such as water additives or dental chews—those can be some different ways to work on home dental care for cats.

What's even more important is to get your cat in and get an exam because when they come in twice a year, we can catch issues before they get really bad. And I know we struggle getting cats in; more dogs come in than cats. It can be more challenging to get them in without them whining and crying. The cat comfort kits can help, so there are no excuses for missing those annual and semi-annual wellness visits.

Ideally, you should brush your cat's teeth every single day. This is the best way to keep your cat's teeth healthy. However, if you can do it even a couple of times a week, that will still help your cat maintain good dental health. The goal is to brush as frequently as possible.

The best thing to do is to brush the cat's teeth as often as you can. Every day is ideal, but as often as you can is certainly a good goal to achieve.