The perfect is the enemy of the good. I've sold many veterinary toothbrushes and tubes of nasty looking toothpaste to well  intentioned pet owners over the years. I know the vast majority of clients take these wonderful tools home and put them in a drawer somewhere and break them out about once a month, maybe once a year. Very few owners will get off the sofa, go get the toothpaste and toothbrush, brush their pets teeth, go rinse off the disgusting toothpaste from the disgusting toothbrush and go back to their  sofa- much less on a daily basis.  So I'm going to make this so easy you don't have to get off that precious sofa. Tonight when I'm sitting at home watching Jeopardy on television and the Pepsodent commercial comes on the TV there is an excellent chance that even I may remember to do what I am telling you to do.

First we have to make the equipment minimal. I like 3". x 3" gauze pads, you can buy them at any drugstore. They will save you hundreds of dollars in veterinary bills so don't cheap out on me here, buy a bunch.

Second, put many of these gauze pads beneath the cushions of your sofa or very near wherever you sit with your pet every night.

Third step? Actual toothbrushing. Wrap one of the gauze pads around your index finger and reach into your pet's mouth. Try rubbing on some teeth. You may see that a vile yellow slime now covers the gauze pad. This is plaque and it used to be on your pet's teeth. I can usually do this to all the upper outside teeth in about 10 seconds.

The beautiful part about this is that I don't have to get off the sofa. If I were to get off the sofa my cat would not be there when I got back with the tube of toothpaste and toothbrush. And I might miss my beloved final Jeopardy question and my world would crumble.

If you would like to see a video of a cat getting its teeth brushed along with instructions from a much more sophisticated group than myself please check out this link  from Cornell veterinary school. Perfect technique! It shows (in many tiny step) how to do what I think you can do pretty quickly on your own with a gauze pad instead of a toothbrush. The important thing is to get the upper outside molars- that is where I see the vast majority of problems. Conversely it doesn't seem nearly as important to get to the lower teeth or on the lingual surface of any teeth, upper or lower. It would be great if we could all do things the way Cornell does this wonderful video. Good luck with that. Knock yourself out. I know you guys, 99% of you won't do it daily.  With my technique you get the majority of the benefit with a minimal investment of time and effort. But please, remeber to brush daily!