What kind of dental and oral problems can dogs have?

Very similar to people, actually. The most common and commonly seen and most common disease process is simple gingivitis. This is an inflammation of the gums, but that often progresses into various stages of periodontal disease, where you have now some soreness of the gums, maybe a little bleeding, and the tooth might be loose. We see masses or growths in the mouth. You can have oral-nasal fistulas. You can have broken teeth. There are tooth root abscesses. So, we see all of these things.

We see fractured teeth, slap fractures that occur, particularly on the chewing teeth. We'll see broken teeth and worn teeth. Sometimes we get hair and junk stuck between the teeth that affect the gums. We see sticks and bones and all kinds of stuff that dogs like to chew. And when you chew a lot, you can lead to all sorts of problems.

In puppies, it is important to monitor whether they are losing their baby teeth properly and if adult teeth are growing in correctly. For older dogs, common dental problems include fractures, tartar buildup, gingivitis, and periodontal disease, which can be quite serious for some dogs.

Dogs can experience a variety of dental and oral problems, including broken teeth and the presence of masses in their mouth. Sometimes, the gingiva can overgrow and they can develop pocketed abscesses, which can lead to infection and very bad odor.

The two biggest problems that we see in vet med are one, gingivitis, which is inflammation of the gums. Usually what that looks like for an owner is you see a rim of red around the tooth right at the level of the gum line. That's the first sign of gum disease or gingivitis. In time, that can progress to periodontal disease, which is disease below the gum line that's affecting the alveolar bone or the bone of the jaw that holds the root of the tooth in place. These are both prevented with a lot of the things that we're going to be talking about.