Dental powder for dogs?

The kind you sprinkle on the dog’s food. Has anyone used it? Does it live up to its claim of cleaning teeth and curing / preventing bad breath?
I am just curious.

I have two Cairn Terriers age 4 and 8. They go to the groomer twice a year and it was she who asked me to put them on PlaqueOff, a dental powder that gets sprinkled on their food. She swears by it, and it’s effective enough that she can clean my dogs’ teeth as part of their grooming. Much less costly than the vet’s version of doing it and doesn’t require sedation. Can’t say it always helps their breath, though it says it does on the label.

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Thank you. Your groomer cleans teeth too? That’s amazing!
I looked at PlaqueOff and it looks like it gets good reviews.

Some great discussion about it here:

I started my dog & cats on it because of that thread, and do think it helps. The Lifeline kelp power is less expensive, but comes with a much larger scoop–you can use the proden scoop with it to match the proden dose, for a pretty notable savings!

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PlaqueOff does not appear to be making any noticable difference for my dog but I’m going to keep using it because it makes me feel like I’m doing something :see_no_evil: combined with dentals at my vet as necessary.

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@Simkie Thank you for the link! I did a search but this thread didn’t show up.
I’ll look into Lifeline since it seems to have good results.

I just got a mini poodle puppy - I want to do right by her :slight_smile:

Another search brought up mouthwash for dogs…amazing what you’ll find nowadays!!!

Right?!

I swear some of it must be just in response to how costly dentistry has gotten. Wowza.

I’ve also never done the whole brushing dog teeth thing before, but am for this dog. Sure, I want to keep her healthy and happy but I also want to prevent or delay that expense of having her teeth cleaned!

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My dogs are on kelp powder after I read about it here on COTH, I hope it’ll be effective because last dental was about 800 euros!!!

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I know it’s 10 months old but I thought I’d bump this for the green dental powder all over social media?? I’ll look at the other links too but… my younger Aussie has bref. He’s a incalcitrant shit eater too, but ugh his bref in the mornings is nasty. Older dog, only nine, is already short one of those nubby front teeth and I’ve handed over money for the pleasure of someone else removing two of them for him.

There is a prescription mouthwash for humans with periodontal disease, called Peridex.

Peridex is nothing more than a 0.12 percent solution of chlorhexidine, a surgical prep and wound irrigating solution sold over the counter many of us keep in our equine medication cabinets. It is a alternative.for Betadine, and is used in the same way.

Chlorhexidine for wound cleaning and disinfecting hands and surgical sites preoperatively is 2 percent. If you dilute it 8:1 with water you will have a 0.125 percent solution you can use to rinse your own mouth or your dog’s mouth. My equine dentist DVM uses it for oral irrigation in horses as well.

My feel:

The kelp stuff sure can’t hurt, and might help :woman_shrugging:

Give their teeth a little brush once or twice a week, too. It takes zero time and dogs seem to tolerate it well. Cats are a lot harder :joy:

Honestly, alot of it is marketing gimmicks. Even products approved by the VOHC (which have peer-reviewed studies behind them) only have to show improvement of 20% to get approved.
I brush my dog’s teeth daily but added in the powder once his breath from kidney disease got worse. It’s not going to remove the tartar that’s already on the teeth, but it may help the breath. I’ve noticed the improvement in the breath (though if it’s also due to better management on his prescription diet I can’t be sure).
My groomer use to charge to brush his teeth when he went in every 6 weeks. I was so annoyed when I found out, it’s a total money grab. It would be no different than brushing your own teeth once every 6 weeks.

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My pug tends to develop a lot of plaque on his teeth and I’ve tried a number of things in addition to trying to brush his teeth, and he also gets dentals at the vet.

I’ve tried PlaqueOff with nothing happening, the green organic Healthy Mouth that may have helped a bit, and now he’s on VetriScience Healthy Mouth, which is a powder. My vet has reported that this appears to be doing something for Pompey. I still have to try to brush the teeth but I’m miserable at it. Ha.

I have added kelp for a couple of years now to my girls diet. I just feed 1 tsp/day and she is about 115lb. I purchased the bag off of Amazon for just over $50 and the bag will last just my dog years! I do feed it to one of my ponies as well (IR) as it is also said to help stabilize metabolism, so a 5lb bag lasts me about 3 months (I feed my pony 2 tbsp in each of his meals - just a handful of grain to get his supps into him).

I find my girl has pretty white teeth (she is 3 now) but some of the molars have a bit of plaque on them, but not too much. Its a quick, easy and cheap add so I like it…
https://www.amazon.ca/Lifeline-Organic-Ocean-Supplement-5-Pound/dp/B00413PMX2/ref=sr_1_5_pp?crid=2CKT9NRPZFZUO&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.za31g5tkTJ05-ZaKmYZw2u_Pl15W1ZzRgn90Ykzynm7tXsT7rUiW4KdvWnJxSzrgOi4u5HkrSut-8WkSrTsubuVSvXHy-WINhlXRzNVnuCSNZdncYNelxB98Qtv7pYP-E_Hkr4ZLwUUNyjK44SjRKODedylEcjpHe4YKoeuvEXC3gLzu4qzARWCmtnrykadmN2FFHnPPAJ7OimzBPzacuZ4smyIgJ0q1wiCKc-UyE_-Z5_ov8BWfzIrEyrvVc4mNJshBMvnMZ7AnnDg6SnTTEgZKkGSJ_NpK7KCIvrPtTpaP2zHyqqI_-tXCqPuihBM0nV2o-ygKRGq2-PkzF6bh_6X5xg-2NxS-a_dDVmt3qFrU7JzW1VhstQHN7AwyO5S_XsC8zSLZBz9IVfF27mKRrVJE3AFOweM4IzfQtayt0rhCkxs5yO7I2vm-0gysEgF3.b0gnlF4Bgog3CObYmh55ISUY-l3_TGTQjzRfcXoE3QQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=kelp&qid=1742822112&sprefix=kelp%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-5&th=1

We are using PetLab Probright and I cannot say enough good things about it - 12 yo boxer with terrible gingival hyperplasia, 3 yo pitbull and 2 yo hound mix. Everybody’s teeth look great, no build up at all, super white. Even the boxer’s little nubs are clean. PB and hound breath is very fresh, boxer’s breath is a million times better than it was 9 months ago. It’s a little pricey but I buy the large-dog container and use my own scooper and it lasts longer than the analogous medium-dog container. I also feel like you could use it every other day or every two days once you got to a baseline of clean teeth, but I haven’t tried that.