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Root Canals For Dogs


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Does anyone have any experience with root canals and dogs? My whippet has broken his upper carnassial and the options are extraction or root canal. My initial thought was to go with the latter (despite the cost - he's been a wonderfully healthy dog and owes me nothing) as l worry about what the loss of such a significant tooth will mean to his facial structure. The vet has said they're difficult to remove but that they do it all the time.

But there are no guarantees with a root canal either, as any human who has had one will tell you. The specialist said some owners elect to X-ray after 12 months to make sure that everything is ok .. at an additional $800.

What do you think? His mouth is otherwise very healthy. And he's just turned 9.

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Yes, $800 :eek: It's a series of X-rays, probably with a precise dental X-ray such as is used on us humans. The root canal would be approximately $2800 (and I doubt that includes the $300 I've already spent).

Yes I'm leaning towards just having it removed. The 'problem' will be solved once and for all whereas there's a chance the root canal won't work or he may break it in future. And I'm not keen on him being under an anaesthetic for the couple of hours it should take.

Edited by Mum to Emma
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  • 2 weeks later...

By way of follow up, my boy had his tooth removed and was behaving 24 hours later as if nothing has happened.

Curiously they didn't stitch the opening. The nurse said they prefer to leave it to drain. Everything I read on the net led me to expect stitches. But he's a very experienced vet. The one everyone queues for,

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By way of follow up, my boy had his tooth removed and was behaving 24 hours later as if nothing has happened.

Curiously they didn't stitch the opening. The nurse said they prefer to leave it to drain. Everything I read on the net led me to expect stitches. But he's a very experienced vet. The one everyone queues for,

great news :)

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Yes, that would be interesting. We're lucky that this is available to us in Melbourne as it's not commonly done. Aas I understand it there's only and handful of veterinary dental specialists in Australia and only one in Melbourne.

What put me off was the lack of guarantee of results (as with any root canal, including humans). Being a molar, they are fraught with complications. If it was a canine, I would have been more likely to go ahead as (I assume) the cost would have been less, being only one root. I'd be interested to know how long your bosses dog is anaesthetised. Root canals are slow processes in humans. One would assume they're the same with dogs.

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By way of follow up, my boy had his tooth removed and was behaving 24 hours later as if nothing has happened.

Curiously they didn't stitch the opening. The nurse said they prefer to leave it to drain. Everything I read on the net led me to expect stitches. But he's a very experienced vet. The one everyone queues for,

It should still heal well. Often a matter of preference, or necessity to leave extraction sites open however I now predominantly do 'surgical' extractions with gingival flaps and find the healing time to be quite rapid. In many cases having no tooth is much more comfortable than a fractured one no matter how it was extracted :o

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