Broken Tooth

[CrazyLabs]

My 7 year old lab has a broken tooth. I check him weekly for bumps and other injuries including his teeth, so I know that it happened in the last couple of days. The broken tooth is his lower canine (fang tooth). It looks like it broke lengthwise taking off the entire tip and the break extends to just below the gumline. The tooth is now about half the size of a normal tooth. It looks like the tip of the pulp is exposed, but not by much.

He is still eating normally and continues to play tug-o-war with his brother. In fact, I wouldn't have figured to check anything just judging by his behavior.

Has anyone had any experience with an injury like this? How much would a fix cost? I have been reading about root canals and have seen prices from $500 up to $2000!! I can't imagine it will be cheap, however. I haven't checked with my vet yet. His last ordeal almost broke the bank.

Does anyone have a good (re: economical) vet that they use in the north suburbs?

[CJH]

My 4 year old lab broke two of the four canine's in his mouth last year and had to have them surgically removed. We initially tried capping them, but eventually the roots/inner cavity died. At that point, you have to have them removed or it can cause some problems (severe infection, etc....).

Its a pretty significant surgery as they have to cut the roots away from the jawbone. Its definitely not cheap and I would expect it to be in the 4 digit range.

Gladly he has recovered fully and did great chasing roosters this year, on top of being a fantastic family dog.

[LABS4ME]

Dealt with a few broken teeth over the years... never had a root canal done on a dog. I just have them or what's left of them extracted. DOne and over with for $100-200. I've never had any negative side effects from doing an extraction vs. a root canal. In fact my 15 y.o. lab is a 3 fanger... no problems in the 4-5 years she has been one.

Good Luck!

Ken

[CrazyLabs]

Thanks for the advice. Everything I have read points to a root canal over an extraction, but of course, that's what the vets want to do $$$. I'd prefer to pull it over having to do a root canal. I've had one of those. Not much fun.

There's still a good chunk of tooth left, but he is bothered if I try to look at it, which is telling me that it hurts him. He's usually pretty good about letting me poke around.

$200 is a very reasonable price. I'm hoping that my vet charges close to the same.

[CJH]

If you can do something less invasive, definitely do it. Its better for the dog and your wallet!

Good Luck!

CJH

[kentuck_ike]

I have an old male that broke all 4 fangs trying to get through his kennel to a female in heat. He never stopped eating or acted sick, so my vet & I decided to just watch him, that was about 5 yrs ago. You would guess he doesn't have fangs unless you looked