Dental disease affects up to 85% of cats over age 3 and causes chronic pain. Regular dental care and professional cleaning significantly improve feline welfare.
Dental disease causes chronic, significant pain in cats that is widely underrecognized because cats conceal discomfort effectively. Owners frequently notice behavioral changes — reduced social interaction, altered eating patterns, increased irritability — only in retrospect after dental treatment reveals the extent of disease that was present. Annual professional dental assessments under anesthesia allow complete examination including dental radiography that detects tooth resorption and periodontal changes invisible to visual inspection alone. Anesthetic risk in healthy cats is low and far outweighed by the welfare benefit of pain relief from treated dental disease. Home dental care starting in kittenhood prevents the degree of periodontal disease that requires extraction. Tooth resorption requires extraction of affected teeth, which consistently produces observable welfare improvement in affected cats.