What the VOHC Seal on Dog Dental Chews Actually Means

What the council is, and isn’t

The Veterinary Oral Health Council describes itself on its home page as a body that reviews, rather than tests. “The Mission of the Veterinary Oral Health Council is to review products for the VOHC’s standards for effective plaque and tartar control in animals when used as directed. The Council reviews the submitted data to ensure it meets the clinical requirements to receive the Seal of Acceptance. When a product demonstrates dental efficacy, the VOHC Seal of Acceptance is awarded. The Seal can be for Plaque, Calculus, or both.” The council “consists of nine veterinary dentists and dental scientists with experience of scientific protocols and study design,” and the data it reviews comes from the company that makes the product, which the council’s protocol page calls the “Product Sponsor,” the company that “provides the product and funding for the trials.”

That is the same shape as most of the certifications on this site: an issuer with a published standard, a manufacturer that pays to be measured against it, and a mark that says the measure was met. What makes this one unusual is how much of the standard is public.

What a chew has to show

The council’s protocols and submissions page sets out the two claims and the two-trial rule. “VOHC awards the Seal in two claim categories: Helps Control Plaque, and Helps Control Tartar.” And: “Two trials are required, to ensure repeatability of results. The dogs or cats included in one trial cannot be included in the second trial.”

The size of the effect is on the trial protocol requirements page. “The minimum difference required between ‘mouth mean scores’ (mean of all scored teeth for all animals in the group) comparing the test group with the negative control group is 15% reduction in the plaque or tartar score in each trial and 20% in the mean of the two required trials, with a statistically significant difference (p 0.05) in each trial.” The council defines the reduction as the control group’s mean score minus the test group’s, divided by the control group’s, and it approves each trial’s protocol before the trial starts, “to avoid misunderstandings that could cause the trial data to be inadmissible.” For a cross-over design, where each dog serves as its own control, the minimum is “28 days per leg of the trial.”

For a product with a chemical anti-plaque or anti-tartar agent, the council adds a safety condition in its own words: introducing a chemical agent into the mouth “must both not create harm (as evidenced by there being no increase in gingivitis following use of the active agent compared with an appropriate control) and must reduce accumulation of plaque and/or calculus at or above the minimum VOHC standard.”

What the seal looks like on a package

The seal carries its claim. The council’s page says “the specific claim(s) for which the Seal was awarded (plaque and/or calculus) are to be included as part of the Seal on product packaging,” and that printing the council’s web address near the seal has been required in its agreements since 2004. So a package with the seal tells you which of the two claims the trials supported, and a reader can check the product against the council’s own accepted products list, which groups dog products into dental diets, rawhide chews, edible chew treats, water additives and gels, toothbrushes and wipes, and a professional sealant, and gives each one its claim and the year the seal was awarded.

What the seal does not say

Three things, each from the council’s own pages. It does not say the council tested the product, since it reviews trials the sponsor ran. It does not say anything about a product without the seal, since a company has to submit to be reviewed at all. And it does not say a chew is right for a particular dog. The council’s safety note is about the chew as an object rather than its chemistry: “Pet owners and veterinarians should be aware of two ways that obstructions from ingestion of dental chews can be significantly reduced,” which are to “ensure that the right-sized product for the body weight of the dog is given” and to “limit giving the treats to times when the owner is available to observe the dog chewing the treat.”

The council’s own view of where chews fit is also on its home page. “The gold standard is brushing. Daily chewing activities can also be effective in maintaining oral health,” and “many pets, particularly middle-aged and older cats and dogs, require periodic professional scaling in addition to on-going plaque control.” This post repeats that rather than adding to it.

Runlow does not yet carry product records for dental chews, so this post names no brand. When it does, the seal, the claim it covers and the year it was awarded will render from each record, checked against the council’s list, the way every certification on this site is recorded.

Where this comes from

Every statement above is quoted from four pages on the Veterinary Oral Health Council’s own site, its home page, its protocols and submissions page, its trial protocol requirements page and its accepted products list, all linked in the text and read on October 8, 2026. Runlow has not tested any dental chew and makes no claim about any product’s effect on a dog’s teeth. Nothing here is veterinary advice; the council recommends periodic veterinary examination, and so does this post.