We got dear cat from the pound about 10 yrs ago & she came with a chipped canine tooth. Over the years, vets have mentioned it in passing…oh, she has a chipped tooth & that’s about all they say. She’s having her teeth cleaned next week & during the consult the vet said it would probably need to come out because it was chipped. Is it routine to pull chipped teeth? I’ve authorized x-rays, so should I ask the vet to look at the x-rays before deciding to pull it? I told the vet it’s been like that for 10 years & she has no problem eating. Her reply was, “oh, ok.”
I had a cat with a chipped canine except his was in the middle of the tooth and the pulp was exposed. You know that had to have hurt like hell! He still ate fine but the vet said it needed to come out. Oh yeah, my cat was 17 at the time. My vet referred me to the local specialty place as cat tooth removal I guess is not easy and my cat was old.
They took x-rays before starting to check for FORLs (odontoclastic resoprtion lesions - basically rotting teeth that are really painful). My poor cat had a mouthful of them so they ended up removing not just the chipped tooth but a almost all of them! Except for being whacked out on buprenorphine for almost a week, he did great with the surgery and the after effects. He lived another 2.5 yrs and died of cancer at 19.5.
Totally worth it and my cat never showed any signs of discomfort beforehand because many cats are STOIC! So it may be causing discomfort to your cat and it’s better to have them check it all out and take out what needs taking out.
Yes, that is fairly typical but you need a radiograph to confirm that the tooth needs to be extracted. We try to save canines if at all possible, but they do extremely well after extractions. We do full dental radiographs on all dental cleanings, sometimes a tooth looks perfectly healthy upon exam and the radiograph tells a different story.
If the pulp is exposed, definitely want to remove it. I’ve seen hordes of chipped teeth with no pulp, so I leave them.
Mojo had a chipped canine. We left it alone because the root was not exposed. He never had a problem with it.
Cats require only a small chip for pulp exposure. If you do not want to go through the hassle of having the tooth pulled (a royal PITA) you can also go to a veterinary dentist for consult and a root canal to save the tooth.
