
26/08/2025
Hopefully in the nick of time! We saw this lovely girl in May and noticed quite severe infundibular caries (decay in the middle of the teeth) and recommended restorations ('fillings') to hopefully prevent the teeth from fracturing and save the teeth. It is often difficult to see the full extent of these until you are in there cleaning them out but in the 3 months since we saw her originally a corner of one of the affected teeth had fractured off (red arrow) and the divider between the 2 infundibula (which are the crescent shaped bits in the middle packed with feed material) was also starting to fracture. The divider was incomplete on the cheek side (yellow circle- so the 2 infundibula communicated with each other which they shouldn't!) and with fracture lines starting at the other side (purple circle). There were also other fissure fractures starting on the tooth as well (pink arrow).
One of the most serious consequences of this disease is the teeth splitting in half (and at that stage unfortunately we have no choice but to extract the tooth). With the rotten feed packing into these 'holes', they demineralise and weaken the teeth from the inside, while more and more feed packs up into the holes wedging them apart until eventually the tooth splits. If we can get to them in time we can remove all the rotten feed material, disinfect the cavities, etch, bond and then restore them (place a 'filling' of human dental material to fill the cavity) to prevent the feed from getting back in there and halt the progression of the decay.
Prevention is definitely FAR better (and much cheaper in the long run) than allowing them to progress to a full fracture. Just another example of why a thorough oral exam is so critical, to be able to pick up problems in the early stages and prevent a serious, painful, long term issue in the future.