It is not uncommon for us to encounter dogs with retained baby teeth. If they are still present at 6 months of age when your pet is spayed or neutered, we will remove them.
This dog is 8 months old and has a retained deciduous (D) tooth behind its erupting adult lower right canine (C) tooth. It is interfering with the eruption process of the normal canine tooth and will be removed
The instrument used to remove this tooth is called an elevator. The tooth is gently removed by rotating the elevator around the base of the tooth where it meets the gum line. This is to ensure complete removal of the tooth, including its root. Each tooth takes 5-10 minutes of gentle elevating to remove.
When the tooth is removed a small hole remains in the gum. The hole is usually so small that it heals rapidly and rarely requires suturing the gum. The healing time is the same whether the gum is sutured or not.
Here is the culprit after removal, notice how deep the root goes. The left 2/3 of this tooth (to the left of the arrow) is the root.
