Re: Broken Teeth

In Reply to: Broken Teeth
Category:   Medical
Posted by:  Dee Murman
Posted on:  April 25, 2003 at 23:59:13

: I have a three year old spayed female that had been in three different homes before I get her. She's a wonderful dog but does have a high activity level. All of her canines are broken. I think they were broken when I got her but she may add to the problem by head butting her soccer ball around the back yard. My vet wants to do root canals on them $394 fo one and over $700 if all four need a root canal. They don't seem to bother her and another vet told be that they'll will likely break more as she ages and that a root canal would be a waste of money. Does anyone have any experience with this. I'm thinking of taking a wait and see attitude and do something if they seem to bother her. One is brown on top and that is the one that the first vet wants to do for sure. Root Canals anyone? Dee

Response:

Dear Dee,

No, thanks -- have already had a few...LOL! Believe it or not, I talked to my own dentist before making a decision about doing a root canal on one of our terrier's teeth. :-)

Jasmine broke off part of one of her upper molars while chewing a particular toy (now banned from the house) and exposed the root. We were able to have the tooth examined by a doggie dentist within 48 hours and opted for a kind of "pre-root canal" procedure that, best case scenario, would require no further treatment. Plus, it gave us time to research. What we found is that teeth that have undergone root canal therapy are more brittle then "live" teeth and therefore, are very prone to fractures.

In Jasmine's case, we were dealing with her 4th pre-molar (the biggest tooth in the canine mouth.) Given the jaw strength of the breed, we decided that a root canal would be an exercise in futility and decided to hope for the best. Unfortunately, 5 months after the procedure, we had to have the tooth pulled. Had we not been on the look out for any swelling on her muzzle/under her eye on that side, we never would have known that the tooth had abscessed and infection had spread into the nasal cavity. Jasmine was no help (LOL!) as she never showed the slightest sign of being bothered by a tooth that had to be painful... :-)

Which brings us to Jade -- she caught and broke off part of her lower left canine on her crate door when she was being "teased" by an idiot. Though the root was not exposed (no brown spot at the tip), we discussed extraction with our vet because of what happened with Jasmine. Unfortunately, removing a "fang" is more difficult then a pre-molar because it is more firmly anchored in the jaw. What you see is half of the entire tooth so you can imagine the size of the hole if it's pulled...yikes!

To date, Jade's tooth remains healthy...knock on wood. Should it go bad, we'll consider a root canal but ONLY because the break was due to unusual circumstances. If we decide to have the tooth pulled, we'll most certainly have it done by a doggie dentist. It's not that we don't trust our vet -- we go to our dentist, not our doc, for teeth problems -- and do the same for our pets. :-)