Chipped K-9 Teeth & Diet

Rashmi Kumar said:

My dog's K-9 teeth look chipped. First it was only one and now it is three. He has lost the sharpness of the edge. Just a little though.
1. Is there anything in his diet that may be affecting his tooth?
2. Do you think I am feeding too much Calcium? Or something else?

- I do and have fed him raw eggshells. Perhaps I over did this along with the RMBs.. :x ...3. Any remedy for this?...Rashmi

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How worn are they? Compare to this picture: http://vetmedicine.about.com/gi/dyn...ttp://www.avds-online.org/info/wornteeth.html

There are a lot of causes of wear. He's not allowed to mouth a tennis ball, right?

From VetMedicine.About.com:
Worn teeth are usually darker in color, oddly shaped, or worn down to the gum line. The teeth most commonly affected are the incisors and canine teeth. The incisors are the small teeth in the front of the mouth, and the incisors are the "fang" teeth.

Teeth wear down by rubbing on each other (a malocclusion or "bad bite") or by the pet chewing on their fur and skin (as in the case of itchy allergies) or by the pet chewing on items (pet toys, bones, sticks, rocks, etc.). This change usually occurs gradually, and the tooth responds by laying down additional dentin to harden the injured area. In these cases, the teeth are normally left alone unless they are painful or the gum is infected.

In the case of sudden wear or a fracture of the tooth caused by chewing, this necessitates an examination by your veterinarian. Depending on the nature and extent of the tooth injury, your vet may elect to extract the tooth or preform an endodontic treatment (also known as a root canal), just like in humans.

If the teeth are very worn, your veterinarian may want to do dental radiographs even if your pet is not showing signs of infection or discomfort. Radiographs will rule out a "dead" tooth that appears fine on the outside, but not vital on the inside. This could could cause problems later on. END

Rashmi Kumar said:

Forgot to add something-

I think the Everlasting ball helps clean the teeth. I know it does.

How would I know if there is pain associated with this at the moment?

Rashmi

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Pain: Does he hesitate to chew on bones or toys? Does he shift items around in his mouth to chew on them?

The calcium thing: I'm not sure why you think you may have overfed calcium and caused tooth wear. You're not supplementing with calcium.

It's true that an overdose of one mineral can create a deficiency of another one, but you're not supplementing with any minerals, right? And calcium is used in bone and teeth development. Also, I've never heard of teeth being softened by hypercalcemia, although I suppose anything is possible.

You live in a city where there are loads of vet specialists, including dental. Maybe you want to start with a call to your regular dentist and describe what you see and ask his opinion. If he's too casual about it for you, you could ask for a dental referral.

I looked on a lot of vet sites yesterday about this, and the overwhelming portion of causes listed were mechanical, like chewing on hair (their fur), chewing on sticks, bones, and rocks, and having a bad bite (the bottom and top teeth not well-aligned).