Brushing pet's teeth: What do you think?

I had my dogs teeth professionally cleaned when he was 8 yrs and that's it. His teeth are fine and I don't want to hear from my vet that at the age of 12 he needs his teeth cleaned, we had a shih tzu who had that done and a few months later she had problems (keep in mind she was 14) and we had to put her down, same thing with a clients dog. I think when it comes to elderly dogs just leave it alone and in general I don't think it's a priority, dogs that live in the wild don't get their teeth brushed and they do just fine. I get my dogs teeth done in full once and that's it. :)

Dogs that live in the wild don't live to be 14 either -so their teeth don't need to last as long. You need to see some of the nasty mouths I see then you might start brushing your dog's teeth. I feel so bad for the old dogs who come in with pus oozing from their gums and teeth literally just wiggling around in their head. Then you can't pull the teeth because if you do, the jaw is so rotted from infection that you may easily break the jaw. And you wonder why your 14 yo dog had problems after a dental. - perhaps you should have had something done prior to age 14.

My vet never said anything until she was 14, and yes they won't live that long in the wild but I don't see it being a priority, I see dog teeth all the time and none of them are as bad as oozing puss and just gross in general and most of my clients don't brush their dogs teeth and everything is just fine, I still say it needs to be professionally done at least once though.