At 14–16 weeks old, a dog´s baby (deciduous) teeth are replaced with adult teeth. The adult teeth emerge starting with the central upper and lower incisors and work their way around to the molars. The adult teeth are fatter and whiter than the baby teeth. Puppies chew more vigorously during the teething phase and should be supplied with ample chew toys, teething rings, and chews to encourage the deciduous teeth to fall out. Be careful with tug–of–war toys while your puppy is young as the baby teeth can be broken off at the base during a rough game.
On occasion, especially in toy breeds, some baby teeth do not fall out, and must be extracted. If you look in your puppy´s mouth and see skinny sharp teeth snuggled in next to fatter white teeth, your pup may have retained baby teeth. Also in toy breeds like Yorkies, you may see a double row of incisors. Sometimes you can gently wiggle pull on the teeth, they will loosen and fall out.
More often than not, the deciduous teeth that do not fall out are the canines or the fang teeth, as their roots are very long. Leaving retained baby teeth in your puppy´s mouth can cause harm as food and bacteria lodge between these teeth causing gum disease. These retained baby teeth can also mechanically push the permanent teeth out of place to become abnormal and often crooked.
To maintain healthy teeth throughout your puppy´s lifetime, start him out early with tooth brushing. There are several types of toothbrushes and finger toothbrushes, along with pleasant tasting pet toothpaste in various flavors such as beef and poultry. Don´t try human toothpaste on your pet as it causes foaming and vomiting if they swallow too much.
All teeth get a build up of bacteria and soft plaque on the surfaces from food particles. We can feel it on our own teeth, when our teeth don´t feel smooth, but ´fuzzy´. Calcium, carried in the saliva, is deposited into the plaque, which hardens into tartar. Tartar becomes so hard it often has to be chipped off with an ultrasonic scalar.
Brushing the teeth prevents this plaque build–up. Teeth surfaces that generally build tartar the quickest are the tooth surfaces in direct contact with the lining of your pet´s mouth. There are excellent dental diets and dental chews which help prevent formation of tartar.
Sharon E. Anderson, DVM
