The Bedtime Toothbrushing Habit Lulu and I Settled Into

Lulu is seven pounds of Maltese with a long white coat and a very strong opinion about being handled. For about a year, I could smell her before I could see her. She would climb onto the couch during my evening movie, turn her face up toward mine, and there it was. Not rotten. Just not clean. I would lean back a little and pretend I hadn't noticed, which is what you do when the dog is otherwise perfect.

I tried the things you try first. The little dental chews from the grocery store, which she ate in ninety seconds and which had changed nothing by Thursday. The drops you add to the water bowl, which she refused to drink. The finger brush that came in a starter kit, which ended with her mouth clamped shut, me holding a wet finger, and a standoff I lost. She is not a difficult dog. She is a fussy dog, and she wins standoffs.

In June, about five months ago now, I ordered the Vet's Best dental care kit. It is a 3.5 ounce tube of banana flavored toothpaste gel made with aloe, neem oil and baking soda, plus a triple sided toothbrush. The banana is what sold me. Lulu will lick anything that smells like a banana, and I had already spent enough on things she would not let near her face.

One thing I want to be plain about, because I have read enough of these to know how they usually go. This is a toothbrush and a paste. It is not a treatment for anything. It does not fix gum disease and it does not stand in for whatever your vet does at a dental cleaning. My own vet is the one who told me that brushing at home between cleanings was worth the trouble. That is the entire claim I am making here.

The first night went the way you would expect. I sat on the kitchen floor with her in my lap, which is where all of our business gets done, and I got maybe three swipes across her back teeth before she wriggled loose and went to sit by the back door and stare at me. I did not chase her. I put the brush down, gave her a piece of her own kibble, and let it go for the night.

Two weeks in, she stopped turning her head away and started licking the paste off the brush like it was a treat instead of an insult.

The second night I only did the front teeth. Two swipes each side and done. Third night, the same. It took about two weeks of that before she quit turning her head, and once she worked out that the paste tasted like banana, she started licking it off the brush in between passes. Now she hears the drawer open after supper and walks into the kitchen on her own.

Our routine is small and it is the same most nights. After we both eat, I sit down on the kitchen floor with my back against the cabinet and she settles into my lap. I do the outside of the teeth on both sides, then the insides. The brush has three sides to it, so it works the front, back and top of a tooth at the same time, which matters when you have a seven pound dog with a very small mouth and a limited supply of patience. One minute, maybe a minute and a half, and we are done.

The change I noticed first was her breath. Not that it turned into roses. It stopped being that sour smell first thing in the morning, the one that hit me when she climbed up beside my pillow. She rides with me to the grocery store on Saturdays and I used to crack a window. I don't anymore.

The second change came at her checkup. The vet looked in her mouth and said her teeth looked cleaner than they had at the visit before, and asked what I had been doing. I told her, and she said to keep at it. I am not going to dress that up into more than it was. She looked, she made a comment, and she moved on to Lulu's ears, which is a whole other subject.

What I would change if I started over: I would have begun with the back molars, which is where I have since learned the buildup likes to sit, instead of doing the easy front teeth for two weeks because they were easier for both of us. I also would not have expected the tube to last forever. It is 3.5 ounces, I use a small amount most nights, and after five months I can see the end of it coming.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you it is not the paste that does the work, it is the sitting down. You can buy any kit on the shelf, and if you only use it when you think of it, nothing changes and you will decide it was a waste. The thing that made the difference here was making it a habit with a fixed time attached to it. Ours is after supper, because that is when we are both already in the kitchen and Lulu is already hoping something will happen.

I would tell you to start stupidly slow, and to stop before she gets annoyed rather than after. Three swipes and a piece of kibble beats a full minute on night one and a dog who hides under the bed on night two. I would tell you the Vet's Best kit is a reasonable thing to try because the paste is soft and the brush is shaped for a small mouth, and that if your dog has red gums, loose teeth, or breath that has gotten suddenly worse, you skip all of this and call your vet first. A toothbrush is not a diagnosis. And I would tell you that the smiling part is not the breath. It is the ordinary evening, one small chore done, dog asleep on the couch, nothing left undone.