The first question most owners who buy commercial dog food want answered, is why dog bones and not plastic dental chew toys.
This question alone has many whole books devoted to it. From the psychological satisfaction from dogs chewing on bones (as their ancestors did for millennia), to how the dog evolved to use the bone material to thoroughly clean teeth.
Most modern dogs are required to go to a vet visit yearly for teeth cleaning. This isn’t included in dog insurance or subsidise in any way and involves a general anaesthetic in most cases.
Yet dogs and wolves have successfully been using dog bones to naturally clean their teeth all of this time. The main difference with modern domestic dogs used as pets, is that their bodies are often vastly reduced down from their wolf ancestor, and that affects how the teeth function including the gaps between them.
You will also find that the commercial dog food pellets that ironically often claim to have a teeth cleaning property, actually do the opposite. Being high in plant matter, modern kibble is full of carbs (sugars). Being a composite treat that typically uses ground wheat or rice particles, the kibble particles stick to the dog teeth surface, front / back/ and the gap. They corrode the teeth enamel much faster than a dog fed natural meat dog treats, or a raw meat and offal and bone diet!
The information you see below also happens to be “supported by references from veterinary studies and expert opinions.” That is, while vets are paid by large commercial interests to recommend and sell you plastic fake bones and fake teeth cleaners, genuine research (without a financial payoff) recommends bones over manufactured dog treats EVERY time.
Dog bones and Plaque and Tartar reduction
Tooth Plaque is a soft, sticky substance made of bacteria. If you clean your dog’s teeth twice daily or feed it a food low in carbs (ie sugars) the bacteria that feast on that sugar will be much reduced, reducing the plaque a lot.
Dog Tooth Plaque when left on the tooth surface will usually harden into tartar if not removed regularly. You can use chemical or physical methods to remove plaque from the dog tooth surface – and I can tell you from experience which one will provide actual nutrition, and more satisfaction.
Once plaque is converted to tartar it is much harder to remove. It is like an armour plating. That is why your human dentist so typically recommends regular brushing, and when you visit for a tooth clean, they have to use that fast moving mildly abrasive tool to remove the tartar that encrusts the tooth.
If you can’t clean your dog’s teeth every day, then appropriate size and hardness bones can fill in the gaps in your cleaning regime. The mechanical action of the bone surface scraping past your dog’s teeth is highly effective at removing surface plaque and to some extent tartar.
But what about dog gum disease?
Some illnesses and diseases in dogs have the side effect of causing gum disease. But for healthy dogs, gum disease is usually caused by allowing plaque to turn to tartar and where the tooth is in contact with the dog gums, that causes gum disease.
Gum disease is the last stop before tooth lose. An unhealthy gum with reduced blood flow causes it to slowly die. The tooth becomes wobbly and its root can dislodge from the jaw.
A single tooth lose can have a cascading effect. With humans we do anything to keep a full row of teeth. We do fillings, we use crowns and we do root canals. When several teeth in a row go missing, dentists add a bridge. Eventually it becomes a set of dentures. These take a lot of maintenance and are nowhere near as good at chewing as real natural teeth.
Dogs unfortunately don’t have that luxury. I have never met a regular dentist who does fillings, let alone crowns or any substantial addition to the missing tooth parts on dogs. And that in a nut shell, or a dog bone, is a big reason why keeping your dog’s teeth healthy is so important.
When a dog’s tooth loosens or is removed, it just leaves a space massively increasing the likelihood of other teeth falling out.
How to improve your dog’s gum health
Considering that most people won’t change their dog’s food for the sake of their dogs gums giving them dog bones is the win-win solution.
When dogs eat bones (or chew on them without breaking the bone) it stimulates the gums and increases healthy blood flow to the gums. When gums are stronger, they are less likely to get infection and they can fight against tartar better.
Increased blood flow not only means that the tissue is healthy, it also means that the gums will be less likely to get inflammation (which can reduce blood flow).
Dogs chewing bones reduce the chance of gingivitis (a disease caused by tartar build up on the gum lines) gingivitis promotes swollen gums or bleeding gums. And so weakening of the tooth base.
Dogs jaw muscles strengthening and dog bones
Dogs chew an animal bone for two main reasons. Sustenance and for the endorphins that it gives during the process of chewing. It is a positive feedback loop. Satisfying the primal urge of the kill (even though your pet is unlikely to regularly kill vermin), provides a great level of satisfaction to their brains.
So even if your dog initially has relatively weak jaws, the process of chewing a dog bone, provides enough pleasure for them to continue the process.
Doesn’t that almost make you think how much fitter humans would be if the feeling of running or long exercise routines felt so good while doing them?
Dog bones and the creation of natural FRESH BREATH
I regularly laugh when owners talk about the reason that they don’t feed their dogs natural dog treats (animal and bone) is that they don’t want ‘stinky breath’.
The irony is that dogs love that ‘stickiness’. It’s the main think that drives them to eat and enjoy eating food. And that the stickiness that people smell is just dried meat (like jerky that humans eat).
It is in fact the chewing of these ‘stinky’ treats that actually causes your dog to have FRESH breath, because they are scraping away the bacteria, and tartar. Bad breath typically comes from the smell of a bacteria infestation (from eating carbs), NOT the animal based treats themselves.
After a dog chews on the bones, the stimulated blood flow in the gums, and the direct bacteria removal, is what gives your dog FRESH BREATH.
The reverse is true of many composite (plant based) dog treats. These often begin by smelling sweet like candy, then because they are easy to eat (low chewing) and don’t remove plaque, AND deposit carbs on the teeth, cause the bad smelling dog mouth.
As you can see, nothing is as it seems – in the big commercial unnatural dog treat adverts.
CONCLUSION
I personally like seeing my dog enjoy something 100% natural, that they were evolved to eat (ie dog bone). I like how it preserves their teeth, and that the chewing process benefits their gums and reduces anxiety at the same time (endorphins are a wonderful thing).
But above all of that, dog bones if they have meat on them, also provide nutritional value too.
If you buy a big enough bone like a kangaroo lumbar bone, they can even safely eat the bone pieces and gain calcium and phosphorous in the right ratio, to grow their own bones, naturally stronger.
The thing to remember is that dog breeds can be very different in size and jaw strength, even eating habits. Some dogs will try and break virtually unbreakable bones (animal leg bones) and not chew when they get a piece off them.
Other dogs carefully eat around the bones, even small bones, just taking the meat. Most dogs are in the middle category, where they will try and break a bone down, but will also chew it properly before swallowing.
Knowing how your dog eats bones, will help you match them to right size and type of bone. Your choice about raw or oven dried bones might also need some research. There are pros and cons on both sides of that ledger.
And if all else fails, consult your vet. Just make sure that they aren’t selling a competing rubber product on their shelves before they give you an answer.
Good chewing!
