Saturday, October 8, 2011

Broken lower canine tooth brings large problem to a small dog


Meet Spumoni, an eleven year old spayed female Shitzu owned by Zack and Kim D.  They adopted her as an adult so her prior life is a bit of a mystery.  She had a dental cleaning on August 9th and the technician performing the cleaning noticed a broken lower left canine tooth. 


As you can see on the x-ray, the top of the tooth has separated from the bottom of the tooth. You will also notice that there is very little bone below the root of the tooth.  Since the root of the tooth makes up so much of the jaw, there is a chance that when this tooth is removed, the jaw will break.  If the broken root is left, then there is a strong possibility that the broken tooth will transmit bacteria to the end of the root and infection will break the jaw.
The owners and Dr. Garnett talked about all options (including a root canal of that tooth) and it was decided to extract the tooth.  Luckily, as you will see, the tooth came out completely and the jaw remained intact. 


Spumoni trotted out of the hospital that night on antibiotics and pain relievers, joining her favorite people that cared so much about her that they helped her with this serious problem.

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