Crooked Bite?
When we went to the vet last week for Goldy's swollen gums, the vet mentioned that she'd like to see us again to check Goldy's bite. She said something about how her bottom teeth shouldn't be hitting her gums like that and when she snaps at the air her teeth click together like an alligator snapping. She mentioned that her bite may not be straight or correct.
Needless to say I won't be paying for braces, but does anyone know how much of an issue this is for a pet (not a show dog)? Should I be banking money away for some mouth surgery or something?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I don't really know the answer to your question, but I think it would depend on whether or not the incorrect bite put too much pressure on her teeth from the wrong angle. If that is the case, conceivably it could cause her to damage her teeth and lose them at a younger age? I know that's what bad bites can do with people. Of course, people spend a lot more time chewing with their back teeth than most domestic dogs do, and there are a lot more years for the pressure to be at work.
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on
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I've looked around online at some dog skeletal stuff, and I think she has a bit of an overbite - basically her bottom teeth "click" up against the back of her top, from what my amateur eye can see.
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Her fronts don't match up like this. Her bottoms go behind her tops in the front.
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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on
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Her bottom teeth are supposed to go up behind the front ones so they overlap. That's a scissor bite. An overbite is when the lower jaw is so short that there is a big space between the top ones and the bottom ones, so the bottom ones actually hit the top of her mouth instead of fitting closely behind the top ones.
In my dogs, the youngest one is the only one that has teeth like the skull up there, and I'm watching her and praying that it doesn't go any further. I want the lower jaw just slightly shorter so the top teeth come closer to overlapping the bottom.
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I'd have to look in her mouth to be sure, but if when you lift up her lips you see the teeth in the order that they show up there (with the lower canine fitting up in front of the upper one, and the teeth behind it line up pretty much evenly and nothing sticks out or looks bizarre) you're probably OK.
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Permalink Reply by Renee Kovacs on
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How old is Goldy, where is she at in regards to her development? When my "Ed" was 6-8 mos and his mouth was still developing, his top jaw & bottom jaw grew at different rates - although we didn't immediately realize this was the problem.
When his adult canine teeth were coming in, the top/bottom weren't meeting properly, and the bottom ones were beginning to actually 'gouge' into the gum of the top jaw. It began to look pretty awful, although it never seemed to bother Ed. The vet (no longer my vet, btw) wanted to pull the bottom canines ... I wasn't ready to do that. I watched one day to the next ...and things finally began getting better. The whole process took 2 months, and the lower jaw finally caught up to the upper jaw - whew, perfect bite, all 4 canines intact.
I have to add - Corgi's don't develop exactly the same as the average dog, as I've learned through Ed. I finally did have my former vet check with MI State's vet school (they have a lot of Corgi experience). I had another issue when the (former) vet thought Ed had R/A - simply because he lacked much exposure to the way Corgi's bones develop. That was 6 years ago, Ed does not have R/A, has a perfect bite, and a holistic vet. =)
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Thanks for this information. That's exactly what's happening with Goldy! Her lower ones are poking her upper gums and causing swelling, bleeding, etc.
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Are they poking her upper gums or are they poking the roof of her mouth? I listened to my dogs snapping their mouths yesterday and they do all go "click"; these are show dogs with generations of correct bites so I am pretty sure an audible mouth-closing is fine. Teeth going into the roof of the mouth or canines hitting the gums is not.
The more you can give her to chew, the better. That will put the appropriate pressure on the teeth and jaw and can actually move things around.
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Yeah, they're actually hitting the gums. She's lost her premolars on the top and the bottom premolars are just torturing her upper gums. She chews on everything - rawhide, ropes, my hand (not biting, literally trying to teeth on it), my blankets LOL. I work hard to get her to teeth on the appropriate things, but she really likes my hand.
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