SCH out of the question? - Page 1

I've had the unfortunate experience of having a GSD with what the dental specialist @ Cornell calls a "beautiful class 2 malocclusion." Who ever wants to hear "beautiful" come from a specialist when diagnosing?! 



Zach's lower jaw is significantly shorter than his upper jaw causing a severe overbite. This also caused his lower canines to come in directly beneath his uppers, which caused the lower canines to slide on the inside of his upper canines and start to form craters in the roof of his mouth. Luckily we caught it soon enough so that he was never in much pain. So now he is totally pain free with only 1/3 of his lower canines left, and I'm wondering if SCH training is now out of the question b/c of the bite work?

how old is this dog?? Often older pups have this, but grow out of it as the bottom jaw is one of the last parts of the dog to finish growing?? although you say "severe" over bite....so maybe this isn't the case...

My dog who is now 10 months old, along with one of his littermates when through a phase where they developed an overbite and actually as thier canines grew in, they developed holes from them in the top jaw. A few months later, now they have perfect dentition....

 

I have a dog who is missing a canine on the upper jaw and the opposite one on the lower jaw, as well as many other premolars because of an accident suffered when young. It never affected her in any way. If your dog bites full or the bite is always corrected so that he/she learns to bite full, it will be just as much about the strength of the jaw muscles and the molars than the canines in any case. As others have pointed out, if this dog was young, you might have jumped the gun on dental work. Also, think about how many dogs wear down their teeth in chewing fences, biting sleeves etc., who do perfectly fine in the bite work.

So no, this is not an automatic "out of the question" issue.

The over bite is SEVERE.  I can fit my thumb in the gap b/w his upper & lower teeth.  Believe me if I had any thought what so ever that he would have grown out of it I would have waited and saved the $1000.  You could see huge craters in the roof of his mouth.  But just knowing that he was, and would be in even more pain...I couldn't and wouldn't wait!  

We had done what's called "Vital Pulp Therapy."  We had this done @ 6 months and he is now 8 months old.  Now it looks as though he has "gobstoppers" as lower cainines!  But now he eats like a dog his size should (he's about 85 lbs now) and is in no pain what so ever.  Before the procedure he would barely eat anything, maybe 2 cups a day.  He has absolutely no issues chewing on ANYTHING.  Heck he loves anything that has to do with biting! 

So SCH isn't out of the question, we'll just hae to work a little harder on a fuller bite.....right?
Anyone have any tips?

In the 90s I had a linebred highlines Weinerau dog with such a problem and he needed a vital pulpotomy at 6 months and lost most of his lower canines in the surgery.  Nonetheless, I don't think it would have precluded protection work.  My boy was a submissive urinating poodle at heart and could not have grabbed a sleeve in any case, unless worn by an 8 year old girl, so I don't really know if his grip would have become an issue.  Good luck with yours.

Wow, Naellick, your description of your dog's malocclusion fits my pup nearly to a T. He is 6 mo. His lower jaw is slightly shorter than the upper and is too narrow which has caused the lower canine teeth to grow inward to where they've created 'pockets' - or, as you call them, craters - directly adjecent to to the upper canines. We saw a vet dentist just yesterday who said this is not only causing him discomfort but will eventually result in some infections.

We are having an orthodontic procedure done next week whereby the dentist will build up the lower canines and elongate them in such a way that when he closes his mouth the longer teeth will close over the outside of the upper jaw. The goal is to put enough pressure on these new fangs to push them outward.

No chewing of hard things such as bones or sticks or SchH sleeves, we've been told. Rubber toys and ropes are ok. The fangs will stay on until they break off naturally in due time (whenever that is). He will transplant some gum tissue to close the existing holes and says the pup's discomfort will soon be gone. One can hope.

He does have a scissors bite with his molars; small, but there, and good enough to not have any adverse effect on chewing food. He is an avid chewer of many things with rubber toys being his favorite.

If this 'fangs' procedure doesn't work for him we'll go with what your dog had done, namely to cut the lower canines down. We don't do SchH, we herd sheep, and he should still be able to grip a sheep even with shortened canine teeth. I'd have no qualms doing SchH with the shorter teeth; for us with the fangs, it's not an option.

I'm so sorry to hear you have the same problem.  It's tough to see them in pain.  The dental specialist @ Cornell did give us 3 options, one or which was the retainer & the other was to just pull them out.  She recommended to cut them b/c it was such a serve case and there was no guarantee that it would work.  We would have had to move the teeth forward & out, she gave us a 75% success rate.  She also warned againist multiple anesthesia treatments. Every time they change the retainer they would have had to put him under.  You never want to do that more often than you need to.  Not that I'm trying to talk you out of your decision, but if the case is as severe as my "little man" then the least dramatic for your pup and your pockebook, would be to just go with the vital pulp therapy from the start...in my opinion.  GOOD LUCK!!!

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