We've already talked about how important oral health is to your over-all health and comfort.

Well, the main factors causing BAD oral health are:

Genetics; if because of your pet's genes, the gums are spongy or "soft" or the enamel coating on each tooth is thin or "soft", then your pet will be much more likely to have dental and gum disease.  In general, the smaller dog breeds and the longer haired cat breens tend to have "softer" teeth and more dental problems earlier in life.

Plaque; the longer crud is stuck to the surfaces of the teeth and stuck in the cracks, the more destruction, the more tarter formation, and the more bacteria in the mouth.  Anything that removes or prevents the formation of plaque is good which is why we recommend using MaxiGuard OraGel and/or a type of dental chew.

Bacteria; what causes the actual damage to gums and teeth and causes disease are the destructive enzymes and toxins formed by colonies of different types of bacteria.  And the most destructive type of bacteria of all are the type of bacteria that can live without much oxygen deep in your gum tissue.  The most common of these bacteria are known as porphyromonas and there are several different types or strains.

Great innovation:

The Pfizer company has produced a vaccine that prevents this family of anerobic bacteria from causing gum infection.

This gives us one more tool ... a big tool ... for having a healthy, fresh smelling mouth.

Tool # 1: professional dentistry as needed to remove calculus and tarter.  To polish and seal the dental surfaces to make it difficult for plaque to bond.

Tool #2:  Toothpaste, enzyme gels, bones, or dental chews on a daily basis to help physically remove the food debris that would otherwise become plaque and home to colonies of bacteria.

Tool #3:  This new vaccine which prevents the growth of those destructive bacteria that live too deep in the gum tissue to be removed from brushing and other surface cleaners.

If your pet has a gum disease problem, we highly recommend this vaccine.

In fact, we recommend using all 3 tools as needed.

Comments, details, and the cost of this new vaccine are in the column to your left.

A Vaccine for Gum Disease !!!

FoxNest Home    Dental Services Home    Oral Chews    OraGel MaxiGuard    OraVet Sealants  

What To Expect When Your Pet Needs Dentistry     Dental Consent Form

Comments & Details:

This new vaccine is a great innovation that will help a lot of dogs have better oral health and therefore better over - all health.

There aren't any bad side effects except for the rare reactions possible with any vaccine or drug.

The only disappointing problem is that the vaccine only works well for 6-12 months at a time.  This is common to vaccines made out of bacteria as opposed to the more common vaccines made from virus' which tend to give years of immunity.

This vaccine is also more expensive than most: $20

None the less, we highly recommend taking advantage of this new vaccine if your pet needs it.

So far, this vaccine is not available for humans, cats or other species.  Just dogs.

For convenience, we call this vaccine "the gum disease vaccine". 

The actual name if you want to research this more on the internet is

"multi-strain porphyromonas bacterin"

The FoxNest Veterinary Hospital;  We're All God's Creatures