Help? Broken tooth. *cry*

[heartbullies]

Do you think it can be saved? Upper R canine. I don't want it extracted and I'm working both Christmas and NY (I'm so depressed about that already) so I will have a little extra money for fancy dental stuff. Poor dude can't catch a break. He gets so stressed at work lately so I've been leaving him at home, but had to bring him today since I knew I'd be staying late. So I gave him a treat in his crate to chew on. ERROR.

I suspect I may need a more specialty emergency dental veterinarian recommendation in the East Bay area? I am assuming any hope of saving the bloody tooth is contingent on surgery ASAP aka tomorrow? He is on pain meds now.

I wish I could redo today and leave him home and come home on time. Ugh.

[heartbullies]

Well, I just read about root canals and pulp therapy. His last extraction + dental was $1800 (though my vet discounted it to $1200 since I work at the shelter) so I am really worried that a root canal or pulp therapy will be double that. Oh man. Oh well. I got some $$ from Christmas gifts that was gonna go for new tires, hah HAH HAH.

Anyone local-- I left messages at Aggie Dental in SF and at Bay Area Veterinary Dental Services Inc in Walnut Creek. I hope they both call back in the AM. In the meantime I'm off to read some Yelp reviews about the two places. Any feedback/experiences/word-of-mouth, please let me know. You can pm me and I will also never reveal or mention you if you have something less than glowing to report.

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[AllisonPibbleLvr]

I think Nichole had a root canal done with one of her girls. Hopefully she sees this.

Buddy fractured both of her bottom canines off chewing and needed them extracted. That was a year before she had 13 other extractions. So she and I are sending your handsome boy our wishes for a speedy recovery!

[heartbullies]

I think Nichole had a root canal done with one of her girls. Hopefully she sees this.

Buddy fractured both of her bottom canines off chewing and needed them extracted. That was a year before she had 13 other extractions. So she and I are sending your handsome boy our wishes for a speedy recovery!

Yeah, I remember being impressed with Nichole's vet estimate of $2k for the root canal. We'll see!

Man, I wish I could just re-do yesterday. Oh well. Thank you for the well-wishes (and oh LORD I will also be hoping 13 extractions aren't in our future)

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[Misskiwi67]

There is pulp exposure, the only option to save it is to perform a root canal. Here in the midwest a root canal will run you about 1200, so you might be OK so long as other dental work is not needed.

I would have her seen as quickly as possible by a veterinary dentist. If bacteria get into the pulp cavity, I don't know if that will change the prognosis to save the tooth. Also, in people these types of fractures cause acute pain for a couple days, then are OK for a little while, then cause throbbing chronic pain thereafter. We can only assume it is the same for dogs.

[heartbullies]

Yeah, I was up til midnight researching dental specialists and thankfully also called UC Davis veterinary teaching hospital. They had a dentist there at 1150pm and she talked to me for a while. We discussed root canal vs partial pulpectomy vs extraction. I'm currently hoping we can do the partial pulpectomy, to maintain the vitality of this tooth. The slab portion of the fracture doesn't nearly extend to the gum. It's not as high a success rate (80%) as a full root canal (95%) and will, like a root canal, require follow-up x-rays.

I may just be erroneously infatuated with the "vital tooth" idea though. If the vet/feedback indicate he should just have a full root canal then I will do it.

He's on Tramadol since last night (his last NSAID encounter was about a month ago and ended in a vet trip, bloodwork, and 3 different medications; he's previously tolerated Rimadyl with no issues post-op but we have to keep things EXCITING around here) since he was being a little clingy and lip-licking, so I know it hurts.

I have had a zero balance on my CareCredit card for about 6 months so obviously he was due for An Incident. Thank goodness for Care Credit. Hopefully his PetPlan insurance will help too. I can't recommend pet insurance enough, I know it sucks to pay out each month BUT I think mine is a little over a dollar per day, and I have gotten on average well over $365 in benefits each year.

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[heartbullies]

Update: heading up to UC Davis now!

*fingers crossed*

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[dogs4jen]

Fingers crossed too.

[heartbullies]

Very informational visit-- met w a faculty vet, resident, and a student. All voted not to extract the tooth. One was pretty emphatic on a root canal instead of the partial pulpectomy. The other vet was more open to both but said due to his age she would probably do a root canal. If he was under 2 and still had thinner teeth/more pulp, then she would have recommended the partial pulpectomy treatment since this fracture just happened within 24 hours.

It's a teaching hospital, the estimate for root canal is $1300-1400 (some of this I can offset, like bloodwork and meds) versus $1800-$2300 at the vets in SF, San Carlos, and Walnut Creek. UCD has done plenty of root canals, even on police dogs, so I'm not too worried about their skill level.

The possible complication is that if the pulp is inflamed and bleeding a lot, they will have to do the surgery in 2 stages instead of all at once. Once the surgery is done, root canals have a 95% success rate. They will knock him out for follow up x-rays to make sure it's all OK a few months after, then annually. The partial pulpectomy success rate is around 80% and requires post-procedure dental x-rays twice and then annually.

PetPlan reimburses at 80% for specialist care after I pay the deductible. I don't think they'll cover any dental cleaning he needs (while he's knocked out for his x-rays he will get a scaling, and the insurance only reimburses for annual dentals and it's been about 2 years since his last one) but they will cover for the root canal since that's an injury.

Just some holiday fun. Gives me some time to save up my $ too.

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[vicarious]

Just curious as to what kind of treat would break a tooth?? Poor guy! Poor you

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Our dental vet has a "knee cap" rule. If you tap your knee cap with the chew/toy and it hurts, it can break a tooth.

[Ashley&Fletcher]

I had a partial pulpectomy done on my oldest dog, Fletcher, when he was about 5 years old, for an upper canine that looked a lot like Booker's. The tooth finally had to have a root canal this past summer, when he was 13.5 years old(!), and in hindsight, I should have just done the root canal in the first place. He also had to have a root canal done on the other upper canine tooth this time around, so at least it wasn't a total loss. The price at the teaching hospital sounds good, and even better that you have coverage. I'm a vet, but I had to pay the specialist to do the pulp cap and the root canals, so I can sympathize.

[heartbullies]

Well... he's at the vet. We brought him earlier today and he'll have the procedure tomorrow. They're doing x-rays anyway for the canine tooth root canal, and so will look at an old, partial slab fracture of another tooth and compare current x-rays to the x-rays of this tooth with the x-rays I had done when it happened (at that time the dentist told me it was OK to stay in his mouth) and maybe extract it.

Lots of $$ but since he's going to live several more decades it's totally worth it. Thank goodness for CareCredit and PetPlan.

So unsettling to have such an empty house!

[Red]

Best wishes from my crew and me.

[Nickdawg]

best thoughts for you and sweet Booker...