Dental disease is the most common health problem in adult cats, causing chronic pain that significantly reduces quality of life when undetected and untreated.
Feline dental disease causes chronic pain that is pervasive, poorly recognised, and easily prevented and treated when identified. The combination of evolutionary pain-masking behaviour, the normalisation of gradual change, and the relatively hidden nature of dental pathology creates conditions where millions of cats live with significant oral pain that their owners do not recognise. A cat with advanced periodontal disease or tooth resorption that continues eating — even eating enthusiastically — may be experiencing continuous oral pain that it endures because food motivation overrides pain-related food avoidance. Annual dental examination as a minimum, with radiographic assessment when pathology is suspected or detected, should be standard practice for every cat owner. The welfare return from treating identified dental disease — through professional cleaning or extraction — is reliably positive and often dramatic.