Broken Molar Found on Dental Cleaning

This eight year old miniature poodle was in for a dental cleaning. The owners had noticed tartar on her teeth and a bad odor from the mouth. They also noticed that she seemed to have some difficulty chewing hard food. Once the tartar was cleaned away it was evident that she had a broken tooth or fracture through the front aspect of her first molar tooth on the lower left side (white arrow). Ouch!!

Dental radiographs (x-rays) were taken and showed that the fracture went all the way through the tooth (red arrow), and that the tooth roots were beginning to abscess. This tooth root abscess is demonstrated on the x-ray as a dark area at the bottom of the root (the white arrow points to this area on the back tooth root).

                
Figure 8                                                     Figure 9                                   Figure 12

Figure 15

 An extraction was planned. These four images show parts of the extraction process where a flap of gum tissue is made to expose the bone covering the tooth (figure 008). Next, Dr. Fisher uses a dental burr to gently remove the bone covering the roots so that they can be more easily removed (figure 009). Figure 0012 illustrates the fractured piece of tooth being removed. The last image (figure 0015 ) displays the finished product: the tooth has been removed and the gum flap sutured in place over the socket. In a few days this little girl will be feeling a lot better and her mouth will be pain free. Yeah!!