When raw feeding, bones are considered an essential part of the diet. Feeding complete minces only, comes with its own set of problems because bones keep dogs occupied and fulfilled.
Recently a clients dog was meant to have a scale and polish and ended up with a rather complicated extraction. Her upper right carnassial (last premolar, 108) had a slap fracture which only showed when being scaled. One of the three roots was badly affected and it was rather difficult to extract.
A veterinary article (Lewis 2021) on the topic reads “The maxillary fourth premolars and mandibular first molars are sharp, tall teeth that occlude together to act like a pair of scissors to cut through musculature and soft tissue of prey.
Why do carnassial tooth fractures occur? When these teeth are utilized to chew on bones and other hard items, the forces generated by a dog’s temporalis,masseter, and pterygoid muscles can easily cause teeth to break. A fracture often occurs on the lateral (buccal) surface of themaxillary fourth premolar (108, 208). “It is a common cause of death in wild wolves”… .
Please be aware of this, it is quite an expensive procedure for a dog.
Fractured teeth can cause pain or probably even worse go unnoticed and cause deep seated infections. Please take it serious and spare your dog problems or a major dental.
