Bad teeth! (feeling guilty)

[FollowTheSun]

So this is my dog Maya, 9 years old. We have two small dogs, both about the same age, same diet. I also have always given them Greenies, and scrape the plaque off about twice a year myself. I have always cleaned my own dogs' teeth over the years and it's always worked well until now. Maya has bad teeth, the other dog has great teeth. She went off her food a couple weeks ago and got herself into another hypoglycemic episode. I examined her all over and found a very loose rotten tooth and the others were looking pretty bad too. I took her into the vet, scheduled a dental surgery, and put her on a soft diet. Yesterday she had her surgery-- had 19 teeth pulled! 13 were rotten teeth and 6 were embedded roots. I feel so horrible that I allowed it to get that bad before noticing how bad it really was. :-( This morning she ate 100% of her breakfast, which is an improvement over the past couple of weeks, and she appears to be feeling better even though she has a mouth full of sores right now. I guess my PSA for the day is to invest that money for the annual dental exam and cleaning. I have a busy life-- working full time, two teenagers, several other critters all well cared for (I thought). Somehow I let this slip through the cracks because the dog was not acting any different than normal until she stopped eating. I'm thankful I have the resources to pay for this surgery for her (worked an extra shift), but I can't imagine the weeks and months of suffering she endured until it reached a crisis. :-(