When a person gets dental sealants, they are applied directly to the teeth to help prevent cavities and other forms of dental disease. The teeth have little fissures, or grooves, that trap food residue (often sticky in nature) and pave the way for tooth decay. The sealants keep the grooves covered and may stay in place for a person’s lifetime.
Cats don’t get cavities. Their main oral health issue is gum disease. That’s why, in our feline pets, a dental sealant is applied not to the teeth but to what is known as the gingival sulcus — the little ridge in your mouth where the teeth meet the gums. A clear material, it is “painted” on by the veterinarian at the gum line with dental brushes when your cat undergoes anesthesia for a cleaning. You can follow up if you’d like up by applying an over-the-counter sealant at home on a weekly basis.
Both in-office and at-home sealants are said by some to help deter plaque from accumulating at the gum line, hardening into tartar and thereby contributing to gum disease. That, in turn, destabilizes a cat’s teeth and can eventually cause tooth loss. Gum disease, known medically as periodontal disease, also allows bacteria from the plaque to enter the bloodstream and potentially lead to heart, lung, or kidney disease.
For all that, Board-Certified Veterinary Dentist™ and Catnip editorial board member Bonnie Shope, VMD, does not use sealants in her practice. It’s not that they’re bad for your pet. It’s that regularly brushing your cat’s teeth at home, often coupled with periodic cleanings by a veterinarian as your cat grows older, remains necessary for maintaining your cat’s oral health whether you use sealants or not. In fact, the value added by putting your cat through the process of having a sealant applied has not been demonstrated, Dr. Shope says.
As the American Hospital Association points out, while sealants for people prevent tooth decay, sealants for cats only go so far as to decrease accumulation of plaque and do “not totally prevent accumulation of subgingival plaque [plaque below the gum line], the occurrence of periodontal disease, the need for home oral hygiene, or professional dental therapy” in the form of cleanings and other procedures. In other words, you should not be lulled into a false confidence that a once-weekly application of a sealant will do away with the need for everyday feline tooth care.
It should be noted that while sealants for people last several years, professionally applied sealants for cats last only six months. Exceedingly few people put their cats under anesthesia for a tooth cleaning every six months, so the sealant your cat would get at the vet’s office is only a temporary help.
Says Dr. Shope, “The gold standard of oral hygiene remains daily tooth brushing. Any client capable and motivated to apply a sealant weekly can probably brush their pet’s teeth daily.”
Again, if you do want to have a dental sealant applied at the vet’s office while your pet is undergoing a cleaning or apply one at home every week, it will not hurt your cat. But its benefit might be relatively minor compared to the mainstays of feline dental care. Indeed, dental sealants for cats have not even been listed as a treatment by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (vohc.org), which operates under the auspices of the American Veterinary Dental College.
