[debannib]

When I adopted Cal, he already had one dead uppper left canine tooth. He now has another dead canine tooth as well as a small incisor tooth that has died. None of the teeth are abcessed or infected, but it's only a matter of time before one begins to bother him OR breaks off.

I've been doing some research because my vet won't extract a canine tooth until absolutely necessary. Those teeth are the 'cornerstone' teeth, and once lost will begin a domino effect of tooth and health problems. Besides that, the roots are so long, the extraction is difficult and is often more complicated on a larger dog.

Because Calvin is relatively young (5-7 years my vet guesses), and we aren't in any trouble yet, I've been looking at options to treat the dead teeth in the hope of saving them to help preserve his overall health. I asked my dentist-boss to consider doing root canals on the teeth, because we have a portable unit which can be transported to the vet's office where Cal can be sedated first.

However, my vet has found a dentist-vet in Decatur Illinois whose practice is all about animal dentistry. VERY interesting. I am contacting him next week for a telephone consultation.....

Has anyone here ever had experience with dental treatment (other than extractions I mean?)

 

[Murphys Dad]

Deb, I haven't had experience with any dog denistry other than Traveler's broken teeth and extractions. Since he's already lost two teeth at the age of 7 years, I'd be most interested in knowing what you find out from the dentist-vet.

 

[Genie]

The only fight our wonderful Standard Poodle Coco ever got in was with a rather mean GSD who lived next door. They had a mutual un-admiration society going on, and the GSD used to stand just out of reach of Coco's chain when he was outside and torment him. But one day she came charging into our yard and she and Coco got into it. The only one hurt was our sweet Coco. One of his lower canines became caught in the other dog's choke collar, we think, and was almost pulled out! It was sticking out almost sideways from his mouth!! Our vet anchored it to the tooth next to it with a fine wire, but wasn't sure if the tooth would re-seat itself. Surprisingly,though, it did! As a little aside, Coco was "officially" my daughter's dog, and she had braces at the time this happened. We thought it was cute that both she and her dog had braces at the same time!
Poor Cal! Does your vet know why his teeth keep dying? Good luck with the doggie dentist. Do let us know what happens.

 

[Hayley's Mom]

Toby had braces when he was a pup because his jaw was so misaligned that two of his teeth were going into the roof of his mouth. Probably a genetic thing but as a rescue we will never know. They did the job as he has a doggie movie star smile now!! Luckily doggie dentistry is much less expensive than the human variety! I think you are smart to proactively try to save the teeth if possible. Let us know how it goes. Julie

 

[angelaH]

Good luck with the dentistry, hope they sort it out.