Others may not agree, but mine has a Bonio and a Denta stick every evening and his teeth are very clean. I do not brush his teeth.
I buy ‘CET’ (cleans every tooth) chews from our vet...they are like rawhide but have an enzyme on them. We give Quinn one in the evening 3-4 times a week and in between buying I do brush her teeth. She’s just over two now, with zero plaque so it may work...
I used to scale my dog's teeth with a dental scaler and it worked very nicely even to his old age. But you do have to slowly work up to it or have a very tolerant and chilled out dog like I did.
Giving them raw, meaty bones helps keep gums and teeth clean and healthy. Not load-bearing bones, but ribs or necks for instance.
Dog toothpaste just requires rubbing on the teeth, not brushing. I just smear it on Tatze’s teeth each evening as she snoozes.
All of our labs have been powerful chewers and destroyers of plush toys. None of them have ever had plaque issues and our vet has never suggested that they need brushing or dental cleaning. I'm not sure why but none of them ever lost a tooth or had any dental issues, except that our first Lab (Ginger) had one canine that died, but did not come out and did not cause her any pain. Cooper and I met one of our mountain neighbors Labs yesterday on a walk and I noticed that Cody's teeth were no where near as white a Cooper's, even though Cody is a year old and Cooper is almost 3 now. Tilly's still look pretty good at 12+ now. I'm not sure what we do differently, but it works.
