Feline tooth resorption is an extremely painful and common condition where tooth structure is progressively destroyed, causing chronic dental pain that significantly impairs quality of life in affected cats.
Tooth resorption causes chronic severe dental pain that profoundly affects quality of life. The pain begins when lesions reach the dentine and nerve tissue, causing spontaneous pain and hypersensitivity that makes eating painful even when the cat forces itself to continue. Cats experience months or years of dental pain from this condition before diagnosis because they rarely display pain overtly and owners may not notice the subtle behavioural changes. Professional dental examination with full mouth dental radiography is required to detect and characterise all lesions — visual examination alone misses most resorptive lesions. The welfare improvement seen after extraction of resorptive teeth is frequently described by owners as dramatic — cats become dramatically more active and engaged after pain relief.