Gingivitis in Cats

[jagracer]

I've just taken my young cat to the vets for its vaccination and the vet said she has gingivitis. Her gums are a bit red and vet said it's not too serious at the moment but may need scaling or other treatment if it gets worse. She didn't offer much advice apart from trying to sell me a tiny tub of powder to mix with her food saying you can't brush a cats teeth. She was also more interested in selling me a monthly payment plan which I am not interested in, after I said I didn't want it she sort of lost interest and left me to the receptionist for the bill.
Having looked on line the general advice seems to be to brush the cats teeth with a special cat toothbrush and paste.

So, has anyone any experience of this and what I can do to prevent it getting worse and any ongoing treatment I can use, does brushing work, providing of course my arms aren't ripped to shreds in the process.

[jagracer]

Thanks for the info bex, yes it was plaque off. I'll take note of what you have said and look on youtube as well. It's my daughter's cat, she left it with me when she went to Aus for a year two years ago and apparently she (the cat) has suffered with this since she got her. She was a rescue kitten and didn't get off to a good start having been found suffering with cat flu and losing an eye as a result.

[jagracer]

That sounds worrying as we already had 3 other cats plus her other cat as well. The other cat of my daughter's is constantly sneezing often with large bogie deposits as well. Both were rescued as kittens but we were unaware of the seriousness when we took them off her. All a bit too late now as we've had them both for two years but I will need to do more research into it all.
Thanks for the help.