Tooth resorption is an extremely painful condition affecting over half of adult cats, yet its silent progression means many cats suffer for years without diagnosis.
Tooth resorption represents one of the most severe and common causes of chronic unrecognized pain in companion cats. The progressive destruction of teeth from the root upward causes pain comparable to severe human dental nerve exposure, yet cats maintain normal behavior until disease is advanced. Many cats undergo dental cleanings without radiographs, which cannot detect resorption lesions below the gum line. The welfare solution is systematic dental radiography during all cleanings identifying lesions that are invisible on visual examination and extracting affected teeth to eliminate the pain source. The welfare improvement from appropriate treatment is immediate and dramatic: cats with untreated resorption that receive extraction show behavioral normalization indicating the pain they were concealing.