Fractured Upper Canine Tooth at the Gum in a Dog

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This 2 year old female Chinese shar pei dog broke its upper right canine tooth off chewing on a bone approximately one week ago. As you can see there is no visible tooth above the gum line (arrow).

 A digital dental x-ray has been taken and shows that a good piece of dental root remains

A digital dental x-ray has been taken and shows that a good piece of dental root remains (arrow). This root fragment is a good source of pain and potential infection for the dog and needs to be extracted.

 Creating a gum flap

Dr Colleen Fox has created a gum flap and used our high speed dental drill to burr away overlying bone in order to remove the root fragment (arrow).

Cleaned tooth socket 

This image shows the cleaned tooth root socket and the lifted flap of gum tissue.

 Second x-ray

A second x-ray is taken to ensure that no small fragments of root remain. Looks good and clear!

 Applying Consil

Here Dr Fox is applying Consil®, a synthetic bone graft particulate that encourages new bone formation, within the empty tooth root socket.

 The gum flap that was created at the onset of this dental surgery is now sutured in place over the Consil® and bony tissue.

The gum flap that was created at the onset of this dental surgery is now sutured in place over the Consil® and bony tissue.

 The end result

The end result is a neat and viable covering of the previous pathologic tooth root. This dog will go on to heal just fine and will now be pain and infection free. Good job Dr Fox!