10/20/2025
[ DENTAL HEALTH ]
Blue Jeans, now 6.5 months old, joined Mattie's Place in July & was adopted by his foster family last month.
Today, he was in for his neuter.
As we mention often in posts, with dogs going in for spays|neuters, turns out they also have retained deciduous teeth that had to be surgically removed during spay|neuters appointments.
Blue Jeans had 1 deciduous tooth surgically removed today (left upper canine). It's the really long tooth that was never going to come out without surgical intervention and would have caused bigger issues in time. The 2 other teeth (maxillary premolars/molars) were super lose and ready to fall out, as the roots were reabsorbed, as they were supposed to do, so we gave them a little help to easily drop on their own today without surgical intervention.
๐ฆท WHAT ARE DECIDUOUS TEETH? ๐ฆท
Deciduous teeth are baby teeth. In total, there are 28 small, sharp, shark like teeth that erupt by 8 weeks of age. In theory, they are supposed to all fall out and are replaced with a full set of 42 adult teeth by 6-7 months old.
๐ฆท WHAT ARE RETAINED/PERSISTENT DECIDUOUS TEETH? ๐ฆท
A persistent or deciduous tooth is a baby tooth that is still in place when an adult tooth has erupted. This becomes problematic because the baby tooth now occupies the spot that is meant for the adult tooth, forcing the adult tooth to erupt in an abnormal position, often side by side with the baby tooth.
๐ฆท WHY ARE RETAINED/PERSISTENT DECIDUOUS TEETH A PROBLEM? ๐ฆท
๐ฉน No 2 teeth should be in the same location at the same time. This leads to food being trapped between the crowded teeth leading to faster tooth decay over time.
๐ฉน Teeth contacting other teeth inappropriately can lead to abnormal wear and weakening of the teeth leading to tooth fractures, interference with the normal growth and development of the jaw and/or oral soft tissue pain and infection.
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Your puppy should check in with your veterinarian around 7 months of age for a quick oral health check-up and if there are any retained or persistent deciduous teeth, you should follow your vets advice on next steps.