Learning Objective

Overview of dogs dental oral pathologies will be presented. Most oral problems cause pain and infection, therefore, appropriate diagnosis should be followed by management of the diagnosed diseases.

Dental disease is the number one clinical problem in small animal practices. And thus, oral pathology is exceedingly common in canine patients. In addition, there is a very wide variety of pathologies that are encountered within the oral cavity of the dogs. These conditions often cause significant pain and/or localised, regional, and systemic infection.

The presented oral problems are statistically quite common and it is important to diagnose these conditions at the primary health care or general practices. Despite the fact that they may lead to serious complications, the affected patients rarely display their discomfort, and behave almost normally.

Periodontal disease is by far number one clinical oral problem in dogs and it includes gingivitis and periodontitis. It has been shown that periodontal disease is more common in older animals. this malady has inflammatory character and is associated with presence of infection thus, has numerous consequences for overall health of the patient.

Persistent deciduous teeth are exceedingly common, especially in small and toy breed dogs. There should never be two teeth of the same type in the same place at the same time and these teeth should be extracted as early as possible.

Intrinsically stained (discoloured) teeth can appear pink, purple, yellow, or grey. The most common intrinsic stain seen in dogs is caused by pulp haemorrhage due to trauma.

A study by Hale showed that only 40% of intrinsically stained teeth had radiographic signs of endodontic disease, however, 92.7% are non-vital.

Fractured teeth seen in veterinary medicine are complicated and uncomplicated. Complicated fractures occur when the endodontic system (pulp) is directly exposed. Uncomplicated fractures are when the damage is limited to the enamel +/- dentin. Both types require therapy, however, treatment for each is often different.

There are several reasons that teeth may be missing. These reasons include: congenitally missing, previously extracted or exfoliated, fractured (or extracted) with retained roots, or impacted.

The oral cavity is the fourth most common place to encounter neoplastic growths.

In dogs a large proportion of proliferations are reactive or benign. It is crucial to perform full diagnostic procedure and start treatment as soon as the growth in oral cavity was detected.