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Dental check: a two-minute mouth checklist
Short answerDental disease often shows no obvious pain, so noticing changes early helps. Lift the lip and run this checklist - your vet can say how often to look - breath, gumline color, tartar, chewing changes, and the rest. The tool turns what you ticked into a plain summary you can print and hand to your vet. A checklist helps you spot changes; it cannot tell you whether a medical issue is involved - anything that worries you is a question for your vet. Nothing you enter leaves this device.
How to use it
Check the dog's actual mouth in good light rather than answering from memory - the outer surfaces of the big upper cheek teeth are the highest-yield look. Tick what you genuinely see today, leave the rest unticked, and read the summary. Re-run it monthly; the trend is the useful part.
Check the mouth
Lift the lip, look and smell, and tick what you genuinely find today. Nothing you tick leaves this device.
Nothing ticked yet - run the check and your summary appears here.
Reading your result
Nothing tickedNothing ticked today. A checklist cannot see below the gumline, so keep up the routine and the oral exams your vet recommends.
Breath, gum color or tartarContact your vet about what you saw and bring the printout. The number of signs does not show how serious it is.
Blood, broken or loose tooth, swelling, pawing at the mouth, eating changesDo not wait for a routine visit - book a vet visit promptly.
For what each sign tends to mean, the signs guide walks through them one by one, and professional cleaning explains the fix when tartar has already won.
Questions about your dog's teeth or breath?PawLine gives research-based answers tailored to your dog's breed, age, size and history - including dental care, chews and what that smell might mean.Ask PawLine