Proposing Life-Cycle Dental Examination and Criteria Comparison Using Dental Radiography and Clinical Examination in Working Dogs

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aimed to propose a life-cycle protocol for dental health examination using dental radiography and oral examination during annual health checks at military animal hospitals. Sixty national working dogs aged one to ten years were selected, and their oral condition was recorded using ‘Dental score’ system, which represents the average quantities of dental lesions observed from oral examination and dental radiography separately. The dogs were then classified by age (one to ten), affiliation (Military, Police, Fire department, Railway police, Customs office), mission (Guard and Scout, Sniff and Search, Tracking, and Others), sex (Castrated male, Intact male, Spayed female, Intact female), and breed (German shepherd, Belgian malinois, Labrador retriever) for group analysis. In dental radiography, tooth abrasion (50.2%), tooth fracture (21.7%), and alveolar bone loss (9.6%) were the predominant findings. Analysis by age showed that dental score increased, with oral examination score showing a tendency to increase with age, showing greater increases between ages 2-3 and 5-6 years, and dental radiography score also increasing annually, showing greater increases between ages 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7 years. Affiliation analysis revealed that Military and Police had relatively higher dental score. Mission analysis showed that Guard and Scout, Sniff and Search dogs had relatively higher dental score. No significant sex- and breed-related patterns were observed in oral examination and dental radiography, which may be attributed to the comparable dental scores across subcategories. Dental scores, assessed separately from oral examination and from dental radiography, tended to increase with age, therefore suggesting a relationship between age and dental health. These findings may support the need for performing oral examination and dental radiography at seven months to one year of age, followed by repeated procedures every two years during health checks.