They came by two

I have slowly learned that the moment that I think I've seen it all, something new will be right around the corner. So it was when I went to examine a young puppy for the first time. I always start at the head and make my way back. I kind of got stuck on the mouth. As you can see from the picture, this puppy had two baby canine teeth (or 604s using the proper terminology) on her left upper jaw. I told her owners that we would need to remove both teeth when she was under general anesthetic for her spay. This is necessary to make room for the adult tooth to come in properly. Having two teeth blocking the adult tooth is bad news.

We scheduled her spay for 16 weeks of age. Once we were done with that procedure, we did dental radiographs to make sure the adult tooth was there (which it was). Then came the delicate work. In order to remove the two baby teeth, I needed to make a flap which you can see in the bottom picture. I always find it interesting that people think it is so easy to remove baby teeth. The root makes up two-thirds of the whole tooth. Break the root off and you have doubled your work load. In this case you also have to take into account that no harm can come to the adult tooth. It is very delicate at this stage.

Wonder what I'm going to see next!