Feline tooth resorption is a painful and common dental disease affecting up to 75% of adult cats that owners rarely detect without professional examination.
Feline tooth resorption represents one of the most prevalent sources of unrecognised chronic pain in companion cats. The condition causes progressive, intensifying pain as the lesion advances into the pulp cavity — yet cats, as prey species evolved to conceal vulnerability, rarely show obvious pain signals. The result is widespread undiagnosed suffering: owners present cats as healthy who are living with significant dental pain. Annual dental examinations with radiographic evaluation are the only reliable way to detect these lesions before they reach advanced stages. The welfare argument for routine dental care in cats is compelling: this is a common, painful, and diagnosable condition that is largely invisible without professional examination and easily treated by extraction once identified.