It was the tooth that killed him

The pictures are too graphic and I'm not going to post them.

I had a little poodle come in today with a lower jaw that was dangling from his face. It kind of looked like he was yawning all the way to his neck (like those Reach toothbrush commercials). The stench from his mouth was nearly overpowering.

This little dog has been playing around the house and then came up to the owner with his jaw dangling. The owner knew that he had some "teeth problems" but didn't know how bad they were. What appears to have happened in his case is that the tooth decay caused so much bone loss around the tooth roots and the jaw simply snapped. The owners decided to euthanize him because the damage was so extensive and the cost of repairing his jaw was going to be too great.

Last year I had a dog come in nearly dead from blood loss. Seriously, he was white as a sheet. He had a severe tooth root abscess on one of his lower molars that had eroded the bone down to the canal that carries the blood supply of the lower jaw. While he was chewing on one of his toys, the tooth gave loose, lacerated the artery, and he nearly bled to death on the way to the hospital. We were able to get him enough fluid, get him asleep, get the offending tooth out, and stop the bleeding. We did a little bone grafting, antibiotics and luckily and he did great.

So, yes, dental disease kills. Sometimes it kills by allowing infection to migrate from the mouth to distant organs (like the kidneys). Other times the results are much more obvious.

In other words - please take this seriously and please listen to your veterinarian if they say there is severe dental disease present. This cases could have been prevented.


AMH