Cat Dental Disease

Hello!  We have a 2.5 year old cat who has had gum inflammation and bad breath for some time.  He is on special dental food from the vet and we brush his teeth every couple of days.  Today we noticed a tooth on the upper jaw, just on the inside of the canines, is loose and appears to be falling out.  We scheduled a dental cleaning for later this week, and this will be his first.  We want to make sure he really needs this before putting him under anaestheic unnecessarily.  My question is whether tooth loss at this age is ever normal, or is it always a sign of periodontal disease?  Is it possible he is losing a baby tooth that never fell out before?

Thanks!
Lisa

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

It sounds like he has a retained deciduous canine tooth.  This is a retained baby tooth.  At our practice we usually remove retained deciduous teeth at the time of spay or  neutering.  

Just like some people are prone to  gum disease so are some cats.  It could be heriditary or can be the result of some underlying diseases such as hemobartonella.  It might pay to investigate underlying diseases in the case of your cat.  

There is something holistic  that you can try for your  cats gums as a preventative.  It is decafinated white tea.  You can make a dilute tea and leave it out for your cat to drink in a bowl next to his water, or if he won't drink it you can syringe a bit of it into his  mouth  daily.