No. Don't brush your dog's teeth with baking soda. A dog can't rinse and spit, so it swallows the paste, and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda holds more sodium than a 33-lb dog needs in a whole day. We found no published study that tested it on dogs' teeth, and it does nothing to tartar that has already hardened.
If you've brushed with it once or twice, that amount is far below what poisons a dog. Switch to dog toothpaste on a soft brush. If brushing itself is the struggle, our home dental care guide ranks every other option by its evidence.
Your dog swallows whatever you brush with
People spit toothpaste out. Dogs can't, so whatever goes on the brush ends up in the stomach. That's why toothpaste for dogs is made to be swallowed.
Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, and just over a quarter of its weight is sodium. The USDA food database weighs a level teaspoon at 4.6 g, which works out to about 1,259 mg of sodium.
| Baking soda | Sodium |
|---|---|
| 1/8 teaspoon | about 157 mg |
| 1/4 teaspoon | about 315 mg |
| 1/2 teaspoon | about 629 mg |
| 1 teaspoon | about 1,259 mg |
For scale, the National Research Council sets the daily recommended allowance of sodium for an adult dog of 33 lb, eating 1,000 Calories a day, at 200 mg. That's what the dog needs, not a limit it must stay under. A brushing that uses a quarter teaspoon of baking soda adds more sodium than that dog needs in a whole day.
Baking soda is also mildly alkaline. Dissolved in water it sits at around pH 8.3, and swallowed in quantity it can upset the stomach. Brushing only works if your dog lets you do it most days, and a paste it dislikes works against the habit you're trying to build.
Dogs that shouldn't get extra sodium
Sodium matters most for dogs whose intake the vet is already managing.
For dogs in heart failure from mitral valve disease, the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine guidelines advise a modest cut in sodium, counted from every source, including treats and the food used to hide pills (Keene and colleagues, 2019). A baking soda paste would be one more source. A kidney diet is also set by the vet as part of treatment. If your dog has either condition, ask your vet before adding anything it will swallow every day.
What baking soda does to plaque and tartar
Brushing works by clearing plaque, the soft layer of bacteria that forms on teeth daily, before minerals in saliva turn it into tartar. Swapping the paste doesn't change that, and nothing you put on the brush removes tartar once it has set. How quickly one becomes the other is covered in our guide to plaque vs tartar.
In human toothpaste, baking soda works as a mild polish. It's softer than enamel and dentin, which is why dental researchers rate it as a low-abrasion ingredient (Hara and Turssi, Journal of the American Dental Association, 2017). No dog study we found has measured what daily scrubbing with it does to teeth.
If whiter teeth are why you reached for it, our guide to safe tooth whitening for dogs explains where the yellow actually comes from and what clears it.
As a plaque fighter it's unimpressive even in people. In a 2023 trial, 20 adults wore a fitted tray of high-baking-soda toothpaste over one part of the mouth and an ordinary toothpaste over the opposite part, a minute at a time twice a day for three weeks, and didn't brush either part. Plaque built up no less under the baking soda paste (Abrahamsen and colleagues, BMC Oral Health). When we searched the published veterinary research in October 2026, we found no study that tested baking soda on dogs' teeth at all.
Set tartar, and anything below the gum line, needs a professional dental cleaning under general anesthesia. Scraping it off an awake dog is no substitute. The American Veterinary Dental College opposes it, as our page on anesthesia-free dental cleaning explains.
If you've already used it, or your dog ate some
A few brushings with baking soda won't poison a healthy dog. The American College of Veterinary Pharmacists puts the toxic amount at 10 to 20 g per kg of body weight, roughly 2 to 4 teaspoons for every kilogram. For a 33-lb dog, the low end is about 30 teaspoons. Stop using it and move to dog toothpaste.
The real risk is the box. Vomiting is usually the first sign that a dog has swallowed too much. Diarrhea, lethargy, tremors, seizures and trouble breathing can follow, and signs have been reported within 3 hours of eating it. If your dog has eaten more than a lick, call your vet or an animal poison line right away. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is on (888) 426-4435 and the Pet Poison Helpline on (855) 764-7661, both open 24 hours. Keep the box in a cabinet your dog can't open.
What to brush with instead
Use a toothpaste made for dogs. It's safe to swallow, which matters because a dog swallows whatever is on the brush, and it's flavored for dogs. Daily brushing is the goal, and our guide to tooth brushing, step by step shows how to build up to it, starting with a lick of paste off your finger.
If your dog fights the brush whatever is on it, a different paste won't solve that. Our no-brush guide covers routines that leave the brush out altogether.
A seaweed powder on food is one of those routines, and Caniclean is ours. It slows new plaque and tartar but can't remove tartar that has set. If your dog has a thyroid condition, check with your vet before starting it, because seaweed contains iodine. Dogs on a heart or kidney diet need the vet's OK for any supplement, ours included.
Whatever you brush with, see your vet if the gums bleed or look red, a tooth is loose or broken, or there's brown tartar that the brush doesn't shift.
Questions owners ask
Can I brush my dog's teeth with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide?
No. Peroxide brings a second problem, because it gets swallowed too, and in a study of healthy dogs, swallowed peroxide damaged the stomach lining (Niedzwecki and colleagues, 2017). Leave both out of your dog's mouth.
Is a coconut oil and baking soda toothpaste any safer?
No. The coconut oil may make it taste better, but the sodium from the baking soda stays the same, and neither ingredient has a dental trial in dogs behind it. Coconut oil also adds fat and calories.
If you'd like to make your own paste, our homemade dog toothpaste recipes leave baking soda out and keep it simple.
Can I use human toothpaste instead?
No. It's made to be spat out, which a dog can't do, and some brands contain xylitol, which can send a dog's blood sugar dangerously low (Merck Veterinary Manual). Use a toothpaste made for dogs.
References
- Abrahamsen S, Koldsland OC, Preus HR. The anti-plaque effect of high concentration sodium bicarbonate dentifrice on plaque formation and gingival inflammation, irrespective to individual polishing technique and plaque quality. BMC Oral Health. 2023;23(1), 281.
- Hara AT, Turssi CP. Baking soda as an abrasive in toothpastes, mechanism of action and safety and effectiveness considerations. J Am Dent Assoc. 2017;148(11S), S27-S33.
- Keene BW, Atkins CE, Bonagura JD, et al. ACVIM consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs. J Vet Intern Med. 2019;33(3), 1127-1140.
- Niedzwecki AH, Book BP, Lewis KM, Estep JS, Hagan J. Effects of oral 3% hydrogen peroxide used as an emetic on the gastroduodenal mucosa of healthy dogs. J Vet Emerg Crit Care. 2017;27(2), 178-184.
- American College of Veterinary Pharmacists. Pet poison control list, baking soda. https://vetmeds.org/pet-poison-control-list/Baking-Soda
- American Veterinary Dental College. Position statement on companion animal dental scaling without anesthesia. https://avdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/AVDC-pos-stmts/Dental_Scaling_Without_Anesthesia.pdf
- Merck Veterinary Manual. Xylitol toxicosis in dogs. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/toxicology/food-hazards/xylitol-toxicosis-in-dogs
- National Research Council. Your dog's nutritional needs, a science-based guide for pet owners. National Academies Press, 2006. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/10668/dog_nutrition_final_fix.pdf
- PubChem. Sodium bicarbonate (CID 516892). https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/516892
- US Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central, leavening agents, baking soda (FDC ID 175040). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/175040/nutrients