Dental disease affects over 80% of dogs over 3 years old and causes chronic pain that owners frequently fail to recognize, representing one of the most undertreated welfare problems in companion animal medicine.
Canine dental disease is the archetypal silent welfare epidemic. The chronic low-grade pain of periodontal disease — inflamed gums, infected roots, loose teeth — causes suffering that dogs conceal from owners who interpret the absence of obvious distress as health. Post-anesthetic behavioral changes after dental extractions — increased activity, improved appetite, more engagement — provide retrospective evidence of the pain that preceded treatment. The welfare challenge is that prevention requires daily owner commitment (toothbrushing) and treatment requires anesthesia with its perceived risks. The welfare calculus strongly supports prevention as far less harmful than the chronic pain of untreated periodontal disease across a decade of an animal lifetime.