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| You can see 7 teeth where there should only be 5! "Extra teeth" |
They are so special, that when I, as a vet, start looking at their teeth, I find something very interesting!
You see, I love looking at healthy mouths, and telling pet owners that their pet is perfect in every way!
Fortunately, I get to do this quite a bit in my vet hospital, as many of my pets come in to see me regularly for their dental checks, and my pet owners work hard to keep their pet's mouths healthy! Of course, these are the visits above "the usual" once a year jab. We encourage regular "happy visits", as this will make your pet love coming into see us, as much as we love coming in to work to be there for them. .
If statistics were to be believed, it would say that I would only be able to say that only 20% of the pets I see that are 3 years of age or older are perfectly healthy!
Fortunately, I get to do this quite a bit in my vet hospital, as many of my pets come in to see me regularly for their dental checks, and my pet owners work hard to keep their pet's mouths healthy! Of course, these are the visits above "the usual" once a year jab. We encourage regular "happy visits", as this will make your pet love coming into see us, as much as we love coming in to work to be there for them. .
If statistics were to be believed, it would say that I would only be able to say that only 20% of the pets I see that are 3 years of age or older are perfectly healthy!
That means, if I see 30 pets a day, only 6 would have perfectly normal, healthy mouths!
If I haven't seen the pet since they were a puppy or kitten, or if the pet owner is new to our veterinary hospital, we can sometimes find something that we did not expect.
For some reason,many "new to us" pet owners seem to think dental disease is tartar on the teeth or red gums. Dental disease really incorporates anything within the oral cavity that is not normal.
And the "extra teeth" or "missing teeth" can make them very very special, and unfortunately, not normal.
For some reason,many "new to us" pet owners seem to think dental disease is tartar on the teeth or red gums. Dental disease really incorporates anything within the oral cavity that is not normal.
And the "extra teeth" or "missing teeth" can make them very very special, and unfortunately, not normal.
What should we do when we find "extra teeth"
Extra teeth can be either supernumerary adult teeth, or retained baby teeth (that is, they didn't want to leave!). Sometimes you can tell by looking at them, which one it is, but most times you need radiographs to differentiate the two.
As my first example is this beautiful dog below - the retained upper canine is obvious, but did you realise that the second premolar was also a baby tooth too? The radiographs (and the size of the crown) gives it away!
As my first example is this beautiful dog below - the retained upper canine is obvious, but did you realise that the second premolar was also a baby tooth too? The radiographs (and the size of the crown) gives it away!
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| Between PM1 and PM3 is a retained baby tooth |
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| Radiographs confirm the deciduous premolar. |
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| This is an unerupted "extra" tooth - |
Say for example, we count five upper premolars in your dog on the left side, and four upper premolars on the right side. We need to do full mouth radiographs to make sure that there are not any unerupted teeth at all on either side.
What should we do when we find that there seem to be "missing teeth" or gaps?
As there is a "standard" or "normal" dentition for all animals, including our dogs and cats, whenever there is a deviation from this, we need to investigate it further.
Say for example, we count only three lower premolars on the left and right lower jaw, when there should be four, we need to do full mouth radiographs to make sure that there are no hidden surprises.
What we may find includes
- the is no tooth at all confirmed on radiographs
- we may see tooth roots (that is, the crown has broken/been snapped off), leaving the roots behind with the gum to close over
- we may see an unerupted tooth (one that has not come through the gum at all - it may be within bone, or under the gum.
So why bother?
If the teeth are missing totally, then no need to worry.
If the tooth roots are present, then, in most cases, we would recommend extracting them, as a general rule.
If the tooth is unerupted, if the tooth is left behind, it has the potential to form into a dentigerous cyst.
What does "dental radiographs" involve?
Well, we have all sat in our dentists chair, and have been asked to hold a dental plate in our mouths, whilst they take the radiographs. Unfortunately, our pets won't allow us to do that - and even if they did, the shape of their heads makes positioning of the xray beam a problem.
In us, for all of our teeth, the xray beam is perpendicular to the plate no matter which tooth that needs assessment. In our pets, it is only the lower teeth that can be radiographed using this technique - for the remainder, we have to place the xray plate, identify the longitudinal plane of the tooth, bisect that angle, and place the xray beam perpendicular to that "imaginary" line (otherwise known as the bisecting angle technique). Yup, alot of imaginary lines are drawn to be able to get useful dental xrays.
So, obviously, we have to give the pet a general anaesthetic, but that isn't as scary as you think. With our modern drugs and monitoring equipment, it is safer now than it ever used to be. If you do nothing, you are allowing your pet to live with potential time bomb in their mouth, which is very very dangerous.
So what's next?
Just call us on 42845988 to make a time for your pet's free Dental Check. At that time, we can give you an estimate for what may need to be done, as well as answer any questions that you may have.
