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So, apparently my older dog has a broken premolar. Our normal vet wants to extract it, but it doesn’t seem to be infected. I’m suspecting the recommendation to extract is based on them not being trained in canine dentistry.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it better to extract if the tooth is not overly damaged or to rehabilitate?
Is it always $1,600 + (our current quote) to have rehabilitative services done?
How quickly does it need to be done? I need time to save up that much!
Any advise, insight is appreciated! (I’m also calling a number of other vets for quotes/options/opinions).
Thanks!
-Kiya
If, as you say, there’s no sign of infection and your dog is still eating fairly normally, I don’t really see that it should be an emergency…
BTW, I wouldn’t necessarily reject the extraction. My dog had to have a broken molar pulled when she was 6, it was broken from crown to root, and she’s never had any eating or digestive problems resulting from this.
My concern on extraction is that apparently the root can break off and become infected if they leave any fragments OR there is the possibility they might break the jaw (both of those sound worse than the original problem!)
If I knew they wouldn’t do either of those things, I’d just take it straight out 🙂
My concern on extraction is that apparently the root can break off and become infected if they leave any fragments OR there is the possibility they might break the jaw (both of those sound worse than the original problem!)
If I knew they wouldn’t do either of those things, I’d just take it straight out 🙂
Hmmm, what sort of risk are we talking about?
My dog’s pulled tooth was a molar and it went without a hitch.
Broken premolar = pull it. The dog won’t miss it (as a matter of fact, they might be thrilled to have it gone, because if it’s broken, it hurts!), it’ll save you grief down the road and money. I’d pull it soon, too.
I pulled way too many teeth to count as a CVT and I can assure you that even when I was a novice I *never* broke a jaw. Ever. And they never came back with an infection either. The vet and I always made sure that the roots came out, the cavity was clean and we sutured it up. I pulled teeth in big dogs, little dogs and cats. If they had an extraction, sometimes we would pack the cavity with an antibiotic gel, and they *always* went home with a course of antibiotics (and plenty should after a dental prophy in a really horrible mouth).
I’ve even worked with a cat that had every tooth in her head pulled because of a disease that caused her body to attack them. She never had a lick of trouble eating even dry food.
My personal opinion is that I would never spend the money on rehabilitation dentistry in my animals. IMHO it’s a waste of money for aggravation to your dog/cat and your own piece of mind that your dog hasn’t lost a tooth. Plenty of others disagree, no doubt, or those procedures wouldn’t be available!
Okay I just had 9 teeth pulled on Timmi my 3.1 lb Poodle. I really thought 650.00 was to high. But now seeing what your vet charges OMG! Okay had Timmi done a few years back total cost was 230.00 for 4 teeth another vet.
Timmi was infected(bad breath)and coughing fits. He has allergies already this made it worse. His back tooth was broken right in half. All the teeth in the back were loose. Why? I waited too long. Gave the infection time to fester and his other teeth and gums got infected. Plus just like us his organs can be damaged and his blood work had a low Platelet count.
Next step. They tried to save his canines with a new procedure something like they do on humans and only because they can’t pull his without breaking his jaw. He is only 6 year old and to small to have that done without a specialist doing it.
If this does not work he has to see a doggy Dentist specialist. Vet says I am lucky–Michigan actually has 2 of these in this state. Hummmmmmm
What I am saying is had I got this taken care of in the first place it would not have cost me as much money or Timmi as many teeth. Poor Timmi has a bad mommy.
windstonefan
Broken premolar = pull it. The dog won’t miss it (as a matter of fact, they might be thrilled to have it gone, because if it’s broken, it hurts!), it’ll save you grief down the road and money. I’d pull it soon, too.
I pulled way too many teeth to count as a CVT and I can assure you that even when I was a novice I *never* broke a jaw. Ever. And they never came back with an infection either. The vet and I always made sure that the roots came out, the cavity was clean and we sutured it up. I pulled teeth in big dogs, little dogs and cats. If they had an extraction, sometimes we would pack the cavity with an antibiotic gel, and they *always* went home with a course of antibiotics (and plenty should after a dental prophy in a really horrible mouth).
I’ve even worked with a cat that had every tooth in her head pulled because of a disease that caused her body to attack them. She never had a lick of trouble eating even dry food.
My personal opinion is that I would never spend the money on rehabilitation dentistry in my animals. IMHO it’s a waste of money for aggravation to your dog/cat and your own piece of mind that your dog hasn’t lost a tooth. Plenty of others disagree, no doubt, or those procedures wouldn’t be available!
Well, this makes me feel a LOT better about extraction as an option. Her mouth is in not too bad of shape (teeth were just cleaned in December), there is no swelling, etc, so I think it should be safe-ish to extract. I don’t intend to wait very long, just maybe a couple of weeks so I can get a couple of pay checks in to save up (but then again the extraction is MUCH less expensive than rehabilitation.)
Sounds like experiences overall with extractions have not been bad. This is why I asked rather than throw myself into a lather over what the interwebs said.
😉 You don’t know how many times I wanted to facepalm when an owner told me they’d read something on the internet. The information wasn’t always bad, but it wasn’t always great either, and sometimes detrimental.
If the dog is very tiny, and he’s got a canine or something in the lower jaw that needs out and it’s not loose, then yeah, things get hairy and I always let the vet do those, but I wouldn’t even break a sweat over a premolar unless it was the big one (and then that’s just because it’s big!)
😉 You don’t know how many times I wanted to facepalm when an owner told me they’d read something on the internet. The information wasn’t always bad, but it wasn’t always great either, and sometimes detrimental.
If the dog is very tiny, and he’s got a canine or something in the lower jaw that needs out and it’s not loose, then yeah, things get hairy and I always let the vet do those, but I wouldn’t even break a sweat over a premolar unless it was the big one (and then that’s just because it’s big!)
She’s a shiba inu, so not an especially small dog, but not really large either. Just sounds like I should give it a few weeks to save up (Since she is not displaying ANY symptoms and the vet didn’t indicate it was urgent) and then take her in to have it pulled.
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