A fractured “baby tooth” breaks off and becomes infected

Kade is an 18 week old Golden Retriever puppy with a retained upper left deciduous (aka baby tooth) canine tooth that has broken off and then developed an abscess. The infection traveled up the pulp cavity of the broken tooth and formed an abscess deep in the upper jaw tissue where it subsequently broke to the surface to the gum tissue as a little nodule with a draining fistula. In this first image the white arrow points to the broken deciduous tooth and the black arrow to the fistulous tract.

The good news is that the problem is easy to fix. Here Dr. Fox extracts the infected deciduous tooth.

This photo of the broken tooth crown and root show the degree of breakdown and deterioration that lead to formation of the fistulous tract.

This is the appearance of Kade immediately after the infected tooth was removed. After a week of antibiotics the fistulous tract disappeared and the gum tissue healed.