Broken canine tooth

[North_Dakota]

Hey everyone,

I was looking for some insight from the group. My mid twenties retired guy had his annual dental yesterday, I was not present at the appointment, social distancing and all. Half of the crown of his canine tooth is fractured. He did loose a bit of weight this winter, he’s a bit of a hard keeper but otherwise healthy. I have not spoken to the vet who did the appointment yesterday, but have been trying to. I only know about the fractured tooth because the vet texted by BO about it, and the BO called me tonight to talk about it. Not thrilled that I’m finding out about this through my BO, but that’s an aside.

X-rays were apparently mentioned if I want to go down that path. I’m concerned about an abscess developing at the root if left untreated, but the vet told the BO canines are hard to extract because the root tends to have a hook.

This is an otherwise healthy 25yr old, and the last thing I want is for his end to be because of a damn tooth. I’m a worst case scenario person and worked for an oral surgeon. So I’m unfortunately overly aware of how a bit of a broken tooth can go south quickly.

So what’s everyones experiences with this? Articles to read? I want to be a bit educated and prepared to ask good questions Monday when the vet and I talk, which will be happening. I am about an hour from a vet college and two different surgeons, so we’ve got resources to draw on. Covid-19 will definitely complicate any referral appointments, but I need to get educated first.

[skipollo]

My horse fractured his right bottom canine way back in maybe 2017? I never would have known if the dentist didn’t tell me because he showed zero symptoms. It was infected, the dentist squeezed around the tooth and pus came out.

We were luckily able to remove it in the barn aisle standing. It was very difficult to remove as it’s hook shaped and deeply rooted. It was a long time ago, but I’m pretty sure they removed most of it but the very bottom root wasn’t budging. They decided his mouth had enough trauma for one day, so we would let him heal and see if the left behind root caused an issue later. The infected portion was fully removed and the abscess area was cleaned out.

He was on SMZs for almost a month along with daily tooth hole flushing of a Betadine scrub/warm water solution.

He healed up perfectly and hasn’t had an issue since. I check the area periodically, and it’s just flat healthy pink tissue. No signs of any other issues.

The dentist told me mouths tend to heal fast and well which is comforting to know.

If he needed to have the bottom root portion removed, I think he would’ve needed to see a surgeon in a hospital setting. We got very lucky with his case. Canine teeth are the worst!

[North_Dakota]

@skipollo thanks for your experience! I had to laugh a little bit, of all the teeth for a 25 yr old to have issues with it had to be the complicated one to remove!

[IPEsq]

My horse broke a canine but it was just cosmetic and no pulp exposed so we just filed it down. The vet mentioned they try not to pull canines unless absolutely necessary because they are hard to get out. Do you know if there is infection or how far the fracture goes? Root canal could be an option potentially.

[North_Dakota]

@IPEsq I don’t know yet. All the info I have gotten has been second had through the BO, and that was very little. I’m pretty ticked off the associate vet hasn’t bothered to text, email or call me. I wasn’t present at the appointment for social distancing, and to be honest they asked me not to because of my job. So I’m really irritated nothing has been communicated with me.

From the photo I’ve seen, at least cosmetically, it’s a nasty break. In a human tooth it would be tough to save with a root canal and crown. I need to get some x-rays done to really see what’s up deep down! I really wish they would have called me during the appointment, I would have given the go ahead for X-rays while he was sedated as he’s not historically been good about having xrays done.