Slab Fracture

A couple weeks ago, PoongSoon cracked her upper right pre-molar #4 while chewing on a knee bone.  (Not the typical knuckle bone.)  It was frustrating to see as she really didn't need that bone to clean her teeth.

Cracked upper tooth among clean teeth

This particular crack is called a "slab fracture" and it exposed her pulp and went into the gumline. When I took her into the vet, he actually wiggled it and I could see it moving around within her gums.   (I felt kinda ill looking at it.)

Since I noticed the fracture immediately, the vet said a root canal was an option, but since she wasn't a show dog, I opted for a complete removal. 

Leaving the cracked tooth in was never an option in my mind because keeping a grumpy 75 lb dog among other dogs is not something I ever want to deal with.

So, PoongSoon was taken in and her cracked tooth was removed.  Because it was a healthy tooth with healthy roots, the vet had a chore and charged me the max for the task.  He had to break the tooth into several pieces in order to extract the tooth. He gave me the pieces since he thought I might be interested in it.  Or maybe he thought it might ease the sting of the vet bill.

Tooth broken into 6 pieces

PoongSoon was placed on canned dog food for the two weeks following her recovery.  Only 5 days into the canned food regimen,  her teeth had become very dirty from the plaque and tartar.

No tooth, but really dirty teeth

Now, the spot is fully healed and I'll have to get her teeth back to its pristine shape some other way.