overbite - Page 1

    My 7 monthe male puppy has a large overbite.  His lower canine teeth are hitting the roof of his mouth and my vet says he needs one of three things.  We can pull the teeth, have a pulpectomy (like root canels) or braces.  Help has anyone done any of these things?  We need to do something very soon because he's not wanting to eat and I can't blame him there. 

How large is the overbite?My pup had about a half inch (maybe less) and her canines were hitting her gums where they should have been slipping in the groove. The bite is good now at 10 months.

I've not had a dog with a severe overbite, but have seen some when I worked as a tech.   If you vet is experienced in in such issues and it sounds as if he/she is, then I'd ask what they would do if it were their dog.  The extractions will probably be the quick fix so he can eat and maybe he will need braces to try to prevent the upper jaw from growing more. The upside is the lower jaw of a dog is said to be the last bone in its body to reach full growth.

Good luck. I'm glad  you are going to do something to help you pup instead of just throwing it away and getting another. He may never be a beauty contest winner, but he will still be able to give you years of companionship and love .

before you do anything, let time pass first. I have seen a few pups in the years  that appear to be overshot at this age and by the time they reached 10 -12 months old their bites where correct. 

perhaps a picture of his bite would enable us to comment more acurate.

Pia

A large overbite at this age will not correct itself but might get less. Extraction would be a no. What you see outside the jaw is only about 25% of the tooth at this age, about a third in the fully grown dog. The rest of the tooth is embedded deep inside the jaw. The root of the canine teeth is huge and angles back. Taking it out will be a massive undertaking, and overkill. It will leave huge gaps in your dogs jaw and the loss of such a massive root structure will compromise jaw  strength later as it will cause bone loss over time (same as with people who have dentures, their jaws recede over time, that is why people with dentures need to get new ones periodically because the bone structure literally disappears on them over time). This is a major operation and will need some recovery time. 
If you have the patience have some plastic braces put in that will push the canines out of the way. They are relatively inexpensive. 
The other option is to take off the tip of the canine teeth and then have a root canal done because that procedure will expose the pulp. Leaving the pulp exposed will cause infection and eventual loss of that tooth, which you do not want because then you are back to the scenario described above. A stub left is better than no tooth. Will cost you about 2k and should be done in a single session and is not all that invasive, the dog will have only about 24 hours of recovery time and most of that is for the filler material to fully harden. If the root canal is done properly and the tooth is properly sealed there is no need to have the teeth capped later. For basic SchH work half a tooth will still do the job.
Personally I would try the braces first and if that does not work you can still chop off the tips later. The not wanting to eat may not be related to the teeth that much. Some dogs become picky eaters, especially if the dog notices you are concerned about the eating. Kibble is just gobbled up and barley ever chewed on unless the kibble size is pretty big. Choose a smaller kibble size and add some water so that the dog can litterally just inhale the food and needs hardly any chewing. That should address the feeding concerns for now and give you some time to consider the least invasive option to fix this.

    Can someone tell me how to post the photos?  I'm sorry I don't know.  I have to tell you it's very hard to get a great photo showing this.  I've been trying for you all.  I would like to add this dog has had Panostoitus (growing pains) more than once sometimes for weeks at a time.  He had it very young (nine weeks old) in all four legs at once.  The vet said it was very unusual.  Maybe some of you are right that he may be able to out grow this if his lower jaw could start growing as fast as his legs seem to.  Thank you all for the input our family is pretty upset about Farley's problem.

  Now that I think about it is was not nine weeks for his first growing pains it was about 11 weeks.

If this dog truly cannot eat due to the canines  injurying the soft tissue of upper jaw, then I sure would not wait to see what braces can do to correct it. If there is no visible damage to the inside of the mouth, then I'd wait it out.

I just had a procedure done on my 6 mointh old for exactly the same thing.. and i would highly recommend you chat with doctor smith...Mark M. Smith, VMD
Diplomate ACVS, Diplomate AVDC
Center for Veterinary Dentistry and Oral Surgery....unless you already konw someone.. taught vet med (dental) for 8 yeras.. he in my laymens terms capped the 2 bottom k9s... and the next day... dog was super. as if nothing were wrong..i found the price very reasonable.. and he thought early was much better.. pup already had marks in roof of mouth.. hope it helps .. feel free to email ifi can add anything else

mike