If dry food cleaned teeth, cats wouldn't have such bad teeth.
Dry food for dental health. It is one of those claims that gets repeated so often people stop questioning it. Worth questioning it.
Kibble is crunchy, yes. But crunchy does not equal clean. Most dry cat food is heavily carbohydrate-based, and carbohydrates break down into sugars in the mouth. Sugar feeds the bacteria that cause plaque. Plaque produces acids. Acids damage teeth and gums. The food being crunchy does not change any of that.
The comparison that makes this obvious: eating crunchy biscuits does not keep human teeth clean. Nobody would argue that it does. The same logic applies to a cat eating dry biscuits, but somehow the pet food industry has managed to make it sound plausible.
If dry food was an effective dental care solution, we would not have so many cats with terrible teeth eating it every single day. But we do. That should tell you something.
What actually helps
Fresh, raw food leaves less sticky residue in the mouth than heavily processed food. Appropriate raw meaty bones, for cats that can safely have them, provide a natural chewing action that genuinely does support dental health - this is the kind of mechanical cleaning that actually works. Fresh meat itself requires more chewing than kibble, which matters.
None of this replaces professional dental care. Regular vet checks and dental assessments are still part of the picture. Raw feeding supports dental health, it does not make dentistry irrelevant.
The broader pattern
Dry food gets promoted as the solution to an impressive range of problems - teeth, weight, digestion, urinary health. It is worth noticing that a single heavily processed product solving every feline health issue simultaneously is a very convenient story for the companies selling it.
The dental claim is one of the weakest. A carbohydrate-heavy food that breaks down to sugar in the mouth is not a dental health product. It is just food in a crunchy shape.