Health & Preventive Care

Dental Chews vs. Dental Sticks: Which One Reduces Plaque

Q: Are dental sticks better than dental chews for dogs?

Shape doesn't determine effectiveness. The Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) accepts products across six categories, including both rawhide chews and edible chew treats (which is where stick-shaped dental products fall), and awards its seal per specific product based on clinical trial results, not by format.

Q: What does the VOHC seal mean?

A product earned the seal by demonstrating at least a 15% reduction in plaque or tartar in each of two 28-day clinical trials, with a mean reduction of at least 20% across both, at statistical significance (p<0.05), against a negative control group. It's awarded to a specific named product, not to a brand as a whole.

Q: Do dental chews replace brushing?

No claim to that effect survives a direct check of the primary literature; a commonly repeated 'chews plus brushing is twice as effective as brushing alone' figure couldn't be traced to a real study and isn't used here. Chews are a real, VOHC-testable intervention in their own right, not a proven brushing multiplier.

Q: How do I check if a specific dental product is VOHC-accepted?

Search the product's exact name against VOHC's current accepted-products list at vohc.org, check which claim (plaque, tartar, or both) it carries, and check the list's own revision date isn't stale. The lookup takes under a minute and works for any product, not just the ones named in this article.

Updated August 4, 2026

Sean Brannon / Pexels

By Morgan Reyes

Shape Is Marketing. The Seal Is the Only Thing That's Real

Stick or chew, the shape on the shelf doesn't tell you anything. What matters is whether that specific product carries the Veterinary Oral Health Council's (VOHC) seal, full stop. VOHC tests and accepts products across six categories, and a product's actual clinical trial results, not its marketing copy or shelf shape, are what determine whether it does anything measurable.

What the VOHC seal requires

The VOHC seal is a real, checkable test standard, not a marketing badge. In plain terms, a product has to prove itself, not just claim it. To earn it for a chew or treat product, VOHC requires at least a 15% reduction in plaque or tartar in each of two separate 28-day trials, with a mean reduction of at least 20% across both trials, tested at statistical significance (p<0.05) against a negative control group.

Acceptance is per-product, not per-brand. A brand can have some products that carry the seal and others that don't; checking a brand's reputation isn't the same as checking the specific product in your cart. VOHC accepts products across six categories for dogs: dental diets, rawhide chews, edible chew treats, water additives/gels/sprays/toothpaste, toothbrushes/wipes, and professional dental sealants. Cats have a narrower accepted list.

Illustration of the VOHC Accepted seal's published wording and layout: Veterinary Oral Health Council, VOHC, Accepted, Helps Control Tartar, Helps Control Plaque. — Illustration of the VOHC seal's published wording and layout, recreated for reference -- not a photograph of any package. Check a product's own packaging for this seal, or VOHC's own accepted-products list, before trusting a dental claim.
1VOHC Accepted -- awarded per specific product against a real trial standard, not a general marketing badge.
2The specific claim (tartar, plaque, or both) the product actually earned in trial.

A comparison by category

Here's what's on VOHC's current accepted list for dogs, by category, not a brand-recognition roundup.

Diagram of a ridged dental stick beside a twisted, knotted non-stick chew treat, shown at the same scale. — Illustration of the two shapes this guide compares. A dental stick and a non-stick, rawhide-style chew look different, but both are judged against the same VOHC standard -- shape alone doesn't sort a product into accepted or not.
1Dental stick -- an edible chew treat shape, judged by VOHC under the same standard as any other shape in its category.
2Non-stick chew (rawhide-style) -- a different shape, same VOHC category, same test standard.

Category	Currently accepted examples
Dental diet	Hill's Prescription Diet Canine t/d, Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets DH
Rawhide chews	Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Dental Chewz
Edible chew treats	Canine Greenies, Tartar Shield Soft Rawhide Chews, OraVet Dental Hygiene Chews, Purina DentaLife, Pedigree Dentastix
Water additives, gels, sprays & toothpaste	HealthyMouth products, Petsmile Professional Pet Toothpaste, TropiClean Fresh Breath, ProDen PlaqueOff Powder, Virbac C.E.T. AQUADENT
Toothbrushes & wipes	ADA-compliant soft-bristle toothbrushes, HealthyMouth kits and wipes, Vetradent Dental Wipes

"Dental sticks" fall inside the edible chew treats category above, alongside rawhide-style chews. That's the real reason format doesn't predict effectiveness: both shapes compete for acceptance in the same category, under the same 15%/20% standard, and both accepted and non-accepted products exist in stick and non-stick shapes alike.

How to check any product yourself

This is a durable skill worth having, not a one-time answer for two products.

Find the product's exact name on VOHC's current list. Search the specific product name, not just the brand, since acceptance is per-product.
Check which claim it carries. Some products are accepted for plaque reduction only, some for tartar only, and some for both; the specific claim matters more than the seal's presence alone.
Check the list's own revision date. VOHC updates its accepted-products list periodically; a product removed from a newer list shouldn't be assumed still accepted from an old screenshot or an outdated roundup.

The check on our own pick

We checked a candidate product against both of VOHC's current lists, by name, and it's not there. VetriScience's "Perio Plus Dental Sticks for Dogs" doesn't appear on VOHC's current dogs list or its cats list. Recommending a product that fails the VOHC check would contradict the seal-over-shape standard above, so there's no product recommendation here. If you're specifically shopping for VetriScience products, this doesn't rule out the rest of their catalog, only this specific dental line as checked here.

Worth saying plainly

Checking a candidate recommendation against the exact standard just laid out, and reporting the result even when it's not the one hoped for, is what tells a real check apart from a rubber stamp. A roundup that skips this step isn't lying, exactly. It just never checked.

Bottom line: shape (chew vs. stick) doesn't determine whether a dental product works; VOHC's seal, awarded per specific product against a real 15%/20% plaque-and-tartar-reduction standard, does. Check any product's exact name against VOHC's current list rather than trusting shelf marketing or a brand's general reputation.

FAQ

Are dental sticks better than dental chews for dogs?

No, shape doesn't determine effectiveness. Both fall under VOHC's "edible chew treats" category and are tested against the same standard regardless of shape.

What does the VOHC seal mean?

The specific product demonstrated at least a 15% plaque or tartar reduction in each of two 28-day trials, with a mean of at least 20% across both, at statistical significance.

Do dental chews replace brushing?

No verifiable claim supports treating chews as a brushing multiplier. They're a real, independently-tested intervention in their own right.

How do I check if a specific dental product is VOHC-accepted?

Search the product's exact name on VOHC's current accepted-products list, check which claim it carries, and confirm the list's revision date isn't stale.

Keep reading

Pet Dental Disease Prevention. The prevalence and diagnostic-visibility case for why dental care matters in the first place.
Anesthesia-Free Dental Cleaning: What Vets Recommend. The professional-cleaning side of dental care, separate from at-home chews and treats.

A Note on Scope

This article is for informational purposes only and isn't a substitute for advice from a veterinarian about an individual pet's dental care. A pet showing signs of dental pain, bleeding gums, or refusing to eat needs a vet visit, not a chew.

Sources

Veterinary Oral Health Council, "Trial Protocol Requirements". Fetched 4 August 2026. Source for the 15%/20% plaque-and-tartar-reduction standard and trial design.
Veterinary Oral Health Council, "Accepted Products". Fetched 4 August 2026. Source for the category list and named accepted examples.