professional teeth cleaning??
 

Bambi's been having bad breath of months. I am taking him to the vet on Tues to see if it has to do with his baby teeth not pulled when he got neutered, or could it be other reasons.

How often do you have your babies teeth professionally cleaned? I am quite scared about putting Bambi under anesthesia. Should it be something i should worry about.

After bambi got neutered, the vet told me he didn't pull any teeth in the back because they are hard to determine whether they are baby teeth or not. But since bambi's been having such bad breath, i'm worried that teeth has overlapped (stupid me can't tell from looking, dont' know how obvious they could be)

If you take your pet for grooming, ask the groomer if she would clean the tartar off the pet's teeth. Ours does it for only $5.00 extra. :D

I think that's a good deal. :thumbs_up

If you can get it done at the groomers, then the dog doesn't need to be put to sleep for a teeth cleaning!*! :teethysmi

IF he still has baby teeth this could easily be the reason for his breath not being 'good'....many yorkies have baby teeth that don't fall out on their own and they DO overlap.

I Love both my girls breath :) there is no smell to it at all...but before Cheri had her teeth pulled.... she did have a smell to her breath....

I just forced Bambi to let me examine his teeth. The tooth right next to his 2 canine teeth on 2 sides, seems like the baby teeth has retained , making it double row. there is 1 little teeth trying to come out from the top that seemed obstructed, and the gum's a little red. I am so mad now, seems like the vet didn't notice the these 2 front baby tooth, how can that be?

I tried taking a photo, but might not be clear. What do you guys think?

This is a better photo....gosh.... :mad:

I think I can see retained baby teeth. IMO I would have them removed.

is that tooth on the top only supposed to come out so little and this small? does it seem obstructed?

I definitely see some extra teeth there as well as some tarter build up. I would have the vet check it out. As far as the recommendation to ask your groomer to scrape tarter from teeth...be very careful unless your groomer is also a vet or vet tech. It's actually illegal for dog groomers to scale teeth in many states. That is considered veterinary medicine. Groomers generally don't go beyond simple tooth brushing and lots don't even do that. There have actually been cases of death resulting from groomers messing with infected teeth causing bacteria to get into the dogs bloodstream. There are some new products that will help get rid of the tarter and make the gums more healthy but won't solve the retained baby teeth issue so I would start with a visit to the vet. My little boy, Titan has some retained teeth as well so I'm kinda in the same boat myself. He's 10 months old so I'm guessing there's not much hope of them falling out on their own now.

Thank you all for all the great advice.I will let you know what the vet says on Tues! The feeling that i might have to put Bambi under again just really concerns me. Nowadays, is it still dangerous for these little dogs to go under anesthesia?

Let your vet check it out. My 2 girls have had their teeth cleaned twice and they are fine. I had it done when they were 5 and 7 years old. What a difference! BAd oral hygeine can cause big problems for your baby. :aimeeyork :aimeeyork

I'm usually the easiest going person - but, I would be concerned about letting a groomer remove tarter from my dog's teeth.

I know for a fact that neither of my dogs would sit still for this being done. I think they are put to sleep to keep them quiet and not fighting because it takes some time to do, and more often than not, if it's done well, it can be painful. Also, I doubt any groomers facilities or tools could be as sterile as they are in a vet's office. This is such an easy way to start an infection.

My groomers are okay for grooming dogs - they have their good days and their bad days and I like them a lot, but I don't think they're qualified at all for cleaning teeth. It would be like letting my hairdresser clean my teeth.

BUT - there is the possibility that a few groomers are qualified to do this (not as well as a professional), but to some extent.

It will be interesting to see what other people know about this.

Carol Jean

Visited the vet this morning. I'm extremely upset. There are at least 5 baby teeth that needs to be extracted. The vet said he didn't pull them out when bambi got neutered was becuase he wanted to wait if they fall out on their own. My breeder said if he knew anything about Yorkie, he would know they rarely fall out on their own. SIGH... now Bambi has to go under again to have them get extracted. I'm definitely not going back to this bad vet!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

newest update: I just made an appointment with another vet that i was recommended to in the area for tomorrow morning. He will examine Bambi's teeth and if extraction is needed, they can probably do it tomorrow! HOpe everything will be ok..as i'm really afraid of bambi going under, his heartbeat got kinda slow when he got neutered, and the vet had to give him a shot to pump up the heart. I hope he'll be ok this time....=(

I think most yorkies or at least the smaller ones retain their baby teeth. I have their teeth done at the vets office and they do it once a year and I brush them in between times.

Thank god! Bambi got his baby teeth extracted and cleaned...$600 sigh...I'm so glad i didn't go back to the first Vet. I found out he would have missed a couple baby teeth if i have him do it. Gosh! Anyways, Bambi's got great breathe now! Thanks everyone with the input!

NOT a know it all, just wanted to share what I DO know. ;)
 

Wow, I just took a look at this thread and haven't read all the way through. I saw the photos of the person that posted this thread originally of his pup's teeth and it's OBVIOUS just in the photos that this Yorkie has disiduous teeth that need to be pulled. The growth and placement of his adult teeth on top also look like they've been influinced to grow incorrectly, most likely due to these retained teeth. I'd need to read the rest of this thread, but a good cleaning is not all he needs. He needs to have the disiduous teeth removed (their blood supply typically isn't the best anyway AND they are the number one reason for bad breath in small breeds), the adult teeth not only cleaned, but POLISHED as well. A lot of people think it's enough to scale a dogs teeth and it's not, the surface (after scraping) then needs to be polished to smooth the surface.
Think of the tooth (after a scraping to remove the tartar and plaque buildup) as a porus piece of volcanic rock-anyone w/ a garden knows what I'm talking about-well, if you were to put that tooth under a microscope, that's kinda what the surface would look like. Why would you think to leave the tooth exposed like that? (little pockets begging to catch more tartar and bacteria?) Therefore, all those teeth that have been "cleaned"/scraped NEED to be polished smooth to even out the surface of those "pockets" on those teeth.
Make sense? I'm not a vet, but teeth are my number one pet peeve (and I went w/ Yorkies!) and I used to work at a clinic that specialized in dentition overseas.
Oh, and most dogs do need to be sedated to polish them. Unfortunantely we can't "ask" them to hold still like we can kids! ;)
:teethysmi

(ps, I would ask to see a different vet! He/She should've noticed this situation in his/her initial office exam and said something to you.)

CUTIE!

Yes, Bambi got his baby teeth removed (read my last post) and also cleaned and polished! his teeth look clean and smell fresh. I'm so happy! Thanks for all the help!

Much Better!
 

Absolutely GORGEOUS teeth!
His gums look much better too! (probably pleased all that unneccesary pressure is off of them!) ;) :thumbup:

I'm so glad you had it done properly- it'll show in the long run! Now just be sure to keep it up! Some brush, others have their dogs chew on rope toys, either sprayed w/ an enzyme cleaner or nothing at all. If you're dog is a respectable chewer, then the hard part is over!

I hope you're much more comfortable w/ this new vet!
:Puppy: