Dental disease affects the majority of adult cats and causes chronic pain that significantly impairs quality of life, yet is chronically underdiagnosed and undertreated.
Feline dental disease represents a welfare problem of enormous scope. Cats with significant periodontal disease, tooth resorption, or stomatitis experience chronic oral pain that profoundly affects quality of life, yet the evidence of improved wellbeing after dental treatment — cats eating better, grooming more, becoming more playful — reveals the scale of pre-treatment suffering that owners had not recognised. The stoic eating behaviour of cats with severe dental pain leads owners and sometimes veterinarians to underestimate the problem. The discomfort of tooth resorption, where teeth are destroyed by internal and external resorption, is severe. Regular dental examinations by veterinarians and appropriate treatment including extraction of diseased teeth are welfare necessities for cats.