Last week for February is National Pet Dental month I wrote a post about products you can get at your Veterinary Clinic to keep your pets teeth healthy, if you missed it you can read it here. I spoke in the post that I had a lot of work done on Gamblers teeth when he was young that cost me a lot of money so I need to keep his teeth healthy. I said I would write about it later and later is today.

When I got Gambler at 7 weeks of age he was just a little bitty thing that just wanted the love of his daddy Norman. Norman was having no part of the loving bit so each time Gambler came near him, he growled to tell him to back away and Gambler not listening went in closer. A couple times in two weeks was too close for Norman and he bit him each time in the head. They were some pretty bad bites and I can’t believe Gambler isn’t anymore touched than he already is.

I got to close to my daddy’s teeth.

Mom didn’t have peas so I got a ice pack.

Little did I know at the time that Gambler would be in for dental work when he was older. Gambler healed up from his bites and never learned to stay away from Norman. When Gambler was 8 months old I had him in the clinic for a exam and the doctor noticed the enamel on his adult teeth was coming off. He had enamel hypoplasia. His teeth were a brown color and you could see groves (last of enamel) in his teeth. Time to go see a dental specialist. I chose to go to the Veterinary School in Madison for his exam and dental work.

They examined his teeth, took radiographs, extracted one, restored the others and come to find out when Norman bit him one time, he displaced his adult pre molar one and it was in the back of his mouth above his pre molar four.

Top arrow is the displaced tooth, bottom arrow is the broken tooth.

Broken molar.

The broken upper left molar needed to be extracted. They wanted to do a cat scan of his head to see exactly where that displaced tooth was and then go in and extract it because if left in it could cause a bony cyst that would need to be removed at a later date. I chose to not do the cat scan and to wait and see what happened. He had enough done to him this day.

They restored his damaged teeth which consisted of cleaning his teeth and prepping them to put a sealer on the teeth to prevent the enamel left on from coming off and because the enamel was off in spots that meant there were tiny microscopic holes in the teeth and that was cause for future infections as well as the teeth could be sensitive.

Enamel defect by arrow.

Enamel defect by arrow.

Enamel defect by arrow.

Restoration complete.

Restoration complete.

Restoration complete.

The doctors at the vet school told me that when their is trauma to the baby teeth when the adult teeth come it it can cause them to have enamel hypoplasia. I never knew this before and know now to really be careful with puppy mouths.

Gambler had to spend one night at the vet school and I had to may a $1200.00 bill to fix his teeth. That first year I was very compliant on brushing his teeth everyday as I spent a lot of money to fix them I wanted him to keep them. I must admit thou I’m not as good about brushing them.

More on enamel hypoplasia by clicking here.

I leave you with this adorable picture of baby Gamblers little toes taken the day he was bitten.



Have a great day and go brush those chompers.