A Broken Premolar Secondary to Chewing Behavior Trauma in a Dog

This image is from the mouth of a 6 year old German Shepherd Dog with a chewing problem. He has what we term separation anxiety and does not like to be left alone and separated from his owners. When kenneled or crated he gets so anxious that he chews on the metal kennel door to the point that he has broken his third premolar (white arrow).

Under general anesthesia dental radiographs were taken that showed that the tooth was broken to the degree that two separate roots remained (white arrow). Due to the degree of tooth trauma and exposure of the tooth pulp cavity that would predispose to infection, it was decided that the tooth needed to be extracted. The radiographs helped us determine how to approach this procedure as the one tooth root was not visible on gross oral exam.

A gingival (gum) flap was made and elevated from the underlying bone with a freer elevator.

Next a high speed dental drill with a burr attachment is used to gently debride the overlying bone from the tooth root, aiding in extraction.

This image shows the gingival flap being lifted up and exposing the underlying tooth roots that are exposed post dental burring. They are now ready to be elevated and extracted.

Here the caudal tooth root is elevated and removed.

Once extracted, the tooth socket is cleaned and the overlying gingival flap sutured back in place.

The final outcome— very neat…good job!  Now the patient must eat a soft canned food diet for the next two weeks as the tissue heals.