millhouse

Honestly it would be unlikely that an abscess would cause the inflammation in the first place. Ulceration in the mouth can be from numerous reasons, but the most common is as a reaction to plaque. IF you are now paying more attention to the mouth you will be resucing the amount of plaque there, so everything should be better. I would still go ahead with the dental to have things checked out more thoroughly. However keep up the awesome work with the cleaning. ________________________ WARNING! Rant AHEAD!! I'll give you my unrequested opinion on home scaling as well: you are conning yourself. The reason I say this is that the problem with removing the calculus build up on the teeth makes them look cleaner, but does nothing about the subgingival areas (under the gums). This is where the disease is. Not on the tooth crown. So as people see less calculus there, they make an assumption that that is all good, and all healthy, when it certainly may not be at all. I have commonly removed a lot of significantly periodontally diseased teeth that had only a small amount of calculus on them. It is just so vitally important to check the subgingival area thoroughly. We should go to our dentist every 6-12 months, and then they examine closely and clean the teeth as required, even though we do lots of things to keep our teeth clean and the mouth healthy. Why shouldn't we do this for our dogs? Chewing a raw bone cannot come close to tooth brushing, so if we need a teeth clean that often with toothbrushing, why do we believe that our dogs are "just fine"? So by all means keep the caclulus levels low on the tooth crowns, as it does help with Periodontal disease, but don't forget that it is under the gums on all sides of the teeth, even the ones you can't examine, that periodontal disease exists. Teeth need to be examined closely. Just because they have minmal calculus doesn't mean they are OK. Sorry for that - my little soapbox.

Absolutley. I happen to see many of your colleagues coming in trying to get Orthodontic work to correct these "incorrect mouths". I am well aware of the cosmetic issues involved with showing, I am just passing on the correct information about the health of people's animals. ....and just quickly oakway, I am the Professor at the uni, so I guess I would need to argue with myself?!.

The majority of dogs should have a full mouth BY 6 months. The deciduous teeth are not required to "guide" the permanent teeth into position. If you wait until you see signs of infection, you have waited too long. I would re-word what you wrote and say it IS "usually" the broken tooth that infects. When any tooth is fractured and the pulp is esposed (the inside chamber containing the nerves and blood vessels), it will die if it is not attended to within about 48 hours. 100% of dead teeth become infected. 100% of infected teeth develop abscesses. The developing abscess is at the root apex, the tip of the root. This is also where you have a developing adult tooth bud. The infection can cause major issues with the developing tooth, all the way up to killing it. This is not necessarily visible from the outside. Have a quick look a the photograph I have attached. This is in a 4.5 month old GSD that had broken a bay tooth. No one thought it was an issue. You can see what the crown looked like with the swabs over it, and then you can see the amazing amount of pus and muck that was around the root. This dog went on to erupt a deformed and discoloured canine tooth. This will not occur in all cases, not even close. But if you can predict which one of those teeth will and won't be affected, you are doing well. With the amount of importance that is being placed on the cosmetics of the dog, I don't understand why it would be risked. I can only say you have been to vets that are not widely read or knowledgable in regards to dental matters. ___________ You're right oakway, it is hard to get the message across on the internet. I just re-read this post and it comes off pretty arrogant and cocky. It's late, it's all true, and I am not making this personal. Just need to correct wrong information when it is given. Oh and Jumabaar - spot on.

I hope the tooth hasn't been taken out yet?! If there is a periapical abscess present around the root of the carnassial, and as long as it isn't too big the tooth can be saved. There are only two options for teeth with periapical lesions: extraction or root canal therapy. If you think the tooth is important, then get a root canal done. Antibiotics do not work. In Melbourne you have the choice of a few guys that do them - I would recommend Wayne Fitzgerald down at the Melbourne Uni's Weribee Clinic. He knows his stuff.

Great news Kitt (It's Aaron here by the way, someone mentioned they saw my name here on the boards) Glad she is doing well, and I hope you see her better and better, back to the dog you used to have. Swelling should be gone soon enough - any bleeding from the nostril on that side? _______________________ Just a quick response to a previous poster; Gary Wilson and I are business partners practicing here in Brisbane. Deanna would have got to meet Gary on Monday, but he was teaching our future Vet Techs about Dentistry, some of whome we've previously taught and looked after Deanna so well on Monday.