In my 17 year career in the Veterinary industry, I have taken a keen interest in oral health. I believe strongly in the prevention of dental disease. Yes, we can scale and polish those teeth in the hospital, and yes, we can extract teeth when dental disease progresses to the point of pain. However, we can prevent this from happening!
Despite me being a regular brusher of my Collie/Lab/Shepherd Baylee’s teeth, I was caught off guard one day when I discovered she had broken one of her carnassial teeth. The tooth I am referring to is that really big tooth on the upper jaw – the 4th one behind the big canine tooth. It is a monster of a tooth that has several points and is a great tooth for chewing. My sweet Baylee had a slab fracture on that tooth.
The carnassial teeth have several points – what can happen when they are chewing on something hard is they bite at the right (or wrong) angle and it breaks off that portion of the tooth extending up into the gum line. This exposes pulp (the inside of the tooth) and is very painful. Left undiscovered, pets begin only chewing on the other side which leads to an abnormal amount of tartar on the side of the mouth that has the fracture. We never gave Baylee bones.
Working in a veterinary hospital, I knew very well the damage bones can do to pet teeth and their insides. When I was a child and we took our dog Jesper for his annual visit, we asked his Veterinarian if it was okay to give him bones and to this day, I have never forgot his answer, “I give my dog bones, but I am prepared to do the surgery.” I never gave Jesper a bone after that.
We suspected she broke her tooth on a popular pet treat that I would have thought was safe. Baylee’s tooth was clean and there was no gingivitis or tartar. We found the fracture quickly. The tooth wasn’t loose. It was solidly rooted. Dog teeth are not designed to come out easily. The roots are surprisingly long and well seated. Extracting this tooth was one option but there was a second option. At the time, there was a Veterinary Dentist that came regularly from North Carolina, so we opted to have a restoration placed on the tooth. This was performed under a general anesthetic. It was beautiful! She had her full “tooth” back. I was told she could not chew on things that were hard ever again or the restoration could break off.
Guess what? About a year or so later, I gave her something I thought would be okay. It wasn’t that hard… the restoration popped off. So we had the restoration done a second time. I learned my lesson. Or so I thought.
Fast forward 7 years. I bring our Labrador Retriever mix, Penny in for her annual exam. You guessed it. Penny has a slab fracture on her carnassial tooth. This time there was mild tartar on that tooth and none elsewhere in the mouth. This means she had been in some discomfort and was chewing on the other side. We hadn’t caught this one right away. We had the tooth extracted and she is doing great!
Moral of this story? You will be surprised at what can break a dog’s teeth. Never give bones and be careful choosing chew toys and treats. If the treat is as hard as the tooth or harder, do not give it. Sometimes treats for pets that appear safe can still damage the teeth, especially if your dog is an aggressive chewer or chew treats at the wrong angle. Finally, this is why regular examinations by your Veterinarian that include oral assessments are so important. I have worked as a Technician cleaning pet’s teeth and take very good care of my dogs (kids) and Penny hid her discomfort from me and I was unaware of her broken tooth. Let’s all catch dental disease and dental fractures as quickly as we can to keep our pets happy and chewing!
By Jen Kendrick, Site Coordinator