Thursday, February 17, 2011

Now that is a dirty mouth!

This is a picture of a dog who is only two years old and already has an exuberant amount of accumulation of tartar on his teeth. It can also be see that he has retained deciduous teeth, also referred to as "baby" teeth or "milk" teeth. From this picture notice that he has a tooth on the upper arcade and the lower arcade which should not be there. On the upper arcade of teeth the tooth which is curved backwards is the retained tooth. Just below those teeth ,on the lower arcade (next to the finger in the picture), is the other baby tooth.  Notice how it has pushed the permanent tooth in towards the tongue. These deciduous teeth usually come out on their own much like a child loses his teeth.  For whatever reason these teeth have remained intact causing crowding of other teeth and accumulation of food and debris.  It is important to have these teeth removed. If the teeth are not lost naturally by 6 months of age, we recommend having them manually removed. This is a procedure which is done under general anesthesia and oftentimes is done at the same time of having a young dog spayed or neutered.

So, if you want your dog to keep his teeth and to have "fresher" breath, make sure he only has the amount of teeth for which his mouth is designed and he has routine cleanings.  Don't let it look like this mouth.

Look for our ad in the Lee Ledger the whole month of February for a $10 off coupon.  

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