Are dog dental sticks good?

Dog dental sticks - they are in all supermarkets and there are lots for sale.

But are dog dental sticks actually good good for your dog and their teeth?

Let's uncover the truth about the very popular dog dental sticks.

Are dog dental sticks good?

Contrary to their marketing, dog dental sticks and other starch-based food and treats do not clean a dog's teeth, but rather they do the exact opposite.

We don’t brush our teeth with biscuits and neither should your pet. 

Most dental sticks are far, far softer than bones (which are good for cleaning teeth) and they can be easily devoured by the strong jaw of even a fairly small dog, in which case they offer virtually no benefits of any kind.

If your dog is a gentler chewer who takes their time with dental sticks, you’ll probably notice that they go soft and gooey from your dogs’ saliva. 

While some dental stick do contain active chemical ingredients to prevent plaque, like Sodium Tripolyphosphate (an ingredient commonly used in detergent), the main ingredients are generally cereals and starches.

These ingredients contain no dental benefits at all and turn to sugars during digestion, which is surely the last thing anyone would recommend for dental health.

These treats are also often brimming with preservatives, gums, humectants, artificial flavours and inflammatory oils, none of which promote health of any kind, let alone dental.  

The same goes for kibble and the reason for this is that dogs don’t tend to properly chew kibble (if you’ve ever seen it come back up it’s almost always still whole), and the pieces are not abrasive enough to remove plaque if they did. If dogs did chew and grind kibble properly, it would turn to a starchy gloop that would stick to their teeth, not clean them.

Raw bones, on the other hand, have been the primary method of preventing dental disease in dogs and wolves for thousands of years.

And to learn more about raw bones and what is safe to feed your dog as a natural alternative to a dog dental stick - click here

And you can also see dental toys:  These products help reduce plaque and tartar by mechanically cleaning the teeth as your dog chews on them. You can see our canine teeth dog teeth cleaning toy here