The New Status Grooming Product is Toothpaste — For Your Dog

Toothpaste is kind of having a moment right now. Gone are the days when our only options were Crest and Colgate and also that sensitive tooth one with the sad commercials about how painful ice cream is for some people’s mouths. These days, toothpaste is kind of weirdly…sexy? And we are not mad about it. Cue My Shiny Teeth and Me by Chip Skylark from Fairly Odd Parents. The options are endless — everything from the trendsetting Marvis line to the experimental Hismile with flavors like peach iced tea, coconut whip, and red velvet (which have to be either gross or life-changing). There are even sustainable options, such as these glass-jarred toothpaste bits by Bite that are perfect for travel and the environment. Even Kendall Jenner is getting in on the gum fun with her rose mint collab with Moon Oral Care.

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Yes, pet care is in its toothpaste era. That’s what led Wag & Bright to recently release their new doggy toothpaste: Puppy Polish. Gorgeously packaged in a Tiffany blue container with a vintage-y French pharmacy design, Puppy Polish is not your grandpa’s toothpaste.

OK, so this is the part where I employ really brave author transparency: My dog literally has no teeth — zilch, zip, zero. So, to test out Puppy Polish I borrowed a dog I hold near and dear to my heart — and also my physical location, because she lives with me, along with her human (my girlfriend). Harper, a tooth-filled dog, hates anything to do with brushing her teeth. Despite my many lectures that she should be grateful for her pearly whites (some dogs don’t have any, she has not been swayed to let us brush her teeth). So, instead we give her very expensive dental dog treats every night, an arrangement that Harper is pretty thrilled about. But recently we’ve been noticing more tartar on her teeth than usual, which is when I broke out the Puppy Polish and prepared to (literally) wrestle this pup into a plaque-free existence.

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Only I didn’t have to — at all. All I had to do was let Harper get a lick of the Puppy Polish, and she was sold. At first, she was hesitant to allow me to stick the Puppy Polisher brush all up in her mouth, but she eventually got pretty comfortable with that as well, which I attribute to the brush’s seriously soft bristles. Shockingly, we were in and out of this experience in under two minutes and neither I, nor Harper, were left shaking and whining in the bathroom tub when all was said and done.

I’m not sure if it was the taste of the toothpaste (which contains poultry and the natural sweetener stevia to make it more appealing to dogs) or the soft bristles that put Harper at ease. Something tells me it was the combo that gave Puppy Polish an edge.

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Another win: I have been able to integrate brushing pretty seamlessly into her dental routine now — something we once thought would be impossible. Plus, on the human end of things, I love supporting Wag & Bright. They are super transparent about their formulas and how they’re tested and is on a mission to become a sustainable, carbon neutral company. 

So, if you want your pup to get a chance to participate in the toothpaste revolution or would simply like their breath to be considerably less rank, consider Puppy Polish and their super luxe doggie toothbrush. And, if you have one dog who is super toothless and one who is not, make sure to give the toothless one a lick of the stuff. I don’t want to be held responsible for their jealous and/or pouty behavior.

Wag & Bright Supply Co.

$18

$18 at Shop Dog & Co.