6 mo old teeth - Page 1

my vet noticed that my puppies lower canine teeth are coming in straight up towards the roof of his mouth instead of slightly outward and fitting into the space between the top ones.

 she wants me to see a dental spectialist who may put a spacer to work them out where they should be. I started schutzhund with him, not sure how this will affect his bite.

Just curious, was there an issue with the puppy teeth not coming out and getting in the way of the new teeth coming in?  I had that with two of my little dogs, but once we had the puppy teeth extracted the adult teeth eventually straightened out on their own.

no, all the puppy teeth came out.

all the teeth seem to be in the right location except the lower canines are set in a bit and hit the roof instead og the gap between the upper teeth, that is what I am trying to figure out , will they fill out on their own or do I spend money I do not have on dental work.

I just didn't know if anyone else has been through this, I guess I will get a consult and see what they say, I was looking "base narrow canine teeth"  up on the web and they can cause issues down the road if not corrected

I would be very cautious messing around at all with the teeth on a young dog... I know several people who have had teeth filed and all kinds of crazy stuff on puppies who were still growing and now they all have problems with their dogs mouths.. some right down to the messed around with teeth cracking and having to be pulled.. (canines in a 3 year old!!) .. I would be very very cautious....

I have had a dog with a severe overbite .. it was well over 1/4 inch.. probably closer to 1/2 inch.. she never had any trouble with her canines puncturing her mouth or eatring or tugging or anything.. a dog is going to adjust to compensate for a fault like that...

Now, I do know older dogs who have had to have dental work done due to injuries.. that is a whole different thing... but puppies, need to be allowed to grow...

Good luck

Thank you for your opinions, I may give it a little time and see if the lower jaw just needs more growing time.  I never would have noticed this if I hadn't gone in for the rabies shot anyway! It is always something isn't it!

Just wanted to add my two cents worth to this post in case someone searches this problem down the road. My guy’s left lower canine was growing into the roof of his mouth and it was creating a small hole (the right canine was perfect). He did exhibit a small overbite beginning around 4 months of age. The time between the first adult canines coming in and the deciduous canines coming out totaled about 2.5 weeks.

At six months the vet said he had to see a dental specialist and I would most likely be looking at extraction, filing, or best-case scenario, spacers. So made the appointment with the specialist. The appointment was three weeks away so I started researching the problem. In general, many of the comments I got from people who dealt with this before was not to be too quick to do anything to a pup’s teeth, but to try and wait until the dog was a bit older unless the tooth in question was causing pressing health issues. DKiah is right, and this is VERY sound advice.

As it turns out, the canine, and the overbite did correct themselves during the three-week wait for the specialist appointment (so by 7 months). The tooth just slowly shifted out to where it should be. The skin of the “hole” became thinner towards the side of his mouth and eventually it just wore away and the tooth took its natural place in his mouth. There was a bit of bruising on the upper gums during this process.

I didn’t cancel the appointment with the specialist, who confirmed his tooth and bite were perfect. She did say, however, that while not all canines will correct themselves (once the hole is there, it often just holds the tooth in the wrong place) extraction, filing AND spacers are a LAST resort. She said that usually oral therapy is the first step and she specifically mentioned “kong therapy.” I didn’t go into much more detail with her as the pup was fine, but thought I would mention it, in case someone else faces this problem and searches the messageboard for help.

Karen

I would wait and see how the teeth grow before visiting any so called specialist.

If thing's do not right them selve's naturally then do what you have to do only to help the dog.

This would be a fault I would not want to reproduce.

hope it all work's out, give it some time.

Here is a link to some pics of what the OP is talking about.  If this is the case with the OP pup I would not hesitate to take the pup to a specialist. Better to be safe then sorry. The pup is still young and this can be corrected but if you wait till the pup is older then 7mo it may require ALOT more work to fix.

 Scroll down to where you see "base narrow canines"

http://www.veterinarydentalcenter.com/orthodontics.htm