My 7-year-old cat in this past year has become less interested in dry food.
I watched him recently and it seemed he wasn't able to chew it very
effectively; he'd try to chew it but some of the (Iams hairball prevention
formula) kibbles tended to drop out of his mouth in bits. He typically
would leave the dry food in his dish and maybe get back to it later.

I dole out a small can of moist food with his dry food over the course of a
week. He's maintained a healthy weight and remains plenty active and
mischievous.

Yesterday I set the dry food in a bit of water in my cat's dish, and he
gobbled it *all* up with much more ease. He's repeating this today, as long
as it's moistened a bit.

I understand that one advantage of the dry food is that it tends to help
keep a cat's teeth cleaner.

But if my cat is struggling with the dry food because he's getting a bit
old and maybe his teeth hurt him a bit(?), I'm inclined to keep moistening
his dry food.

Does anyone have any experience along these lines?