Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Mandibular canine tooth linguoversion in pictures

We took some pictures of Niila's canine tooth problem. Now I call it a "tooth" problem, because the other canine tooth is looking a lot less serious. The other canine tooth has not made a hole in the palate and the position is already nearly correct. However, the lower left canine tooth doesn't look good at all:



As you can see in the picture, the lower canine tooth is growing inside the palate. Currently the hole it digs looks like this:



It certainly doesn't look nice and I'm sure it creates great deal of discomfort in Niila's mouth. Poor thing. We have been practicing the "pushing therapy" every day when Niila sleeps, but we don't know yet if it works. J.R. called the vet today and she asked us to continue pushing the teeth at least for another week. Apparently her case is not awfully serious yet. Anyway. We have been practicing the "pushing therapy" every day when Niila sleeps. She only lets us push the canine teeth when she sleeps, and when she sleeps she doesn't seem to be even aware that something is going on with her mouth. She just sleeps like only a puppy can.

But it's hard to be her mommy right now. I don't want her to feel pain and it kills me that I can't help her instantly. There's no magic pills to transform her teeth over night.

At least the little girl is looking happy.

5 comments:

  1. Now I see what you mean! Keep at the "pushing" technique. Hope it works. She's waaay to cute to have pain and discomfort.

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  2. Poor Niila...that looks really painful :( We'll keep our fingers crossed that the pushing therapy will get that tooth straightened out. Too bad they don't have little retainers for puppies to help straighten it out.

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  3. The pushing therapy sounds strange, considering that humans need to have constant push on their teeth to change their alignment.. but maybe it works because she's so young? And just imagining how it feels to have your teeth pushed... ouch... :I Sucks to have things like that and you just have to wait it out,..

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  4. Elina: It only works with young dogs that still have their teeth coming out. As long as they're growing it's possible to change the alignment. We are already seeing some progress, but there's still a long way to go.

    We push the teeth when Niila is sleeping and she doesn't even seem to notice it, no matter how hard we push. She sleeps so deeply. You just have to make sure that she falls asleep with the fingers already inside her mouth...

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  5. Must be easy to brush Nilla's teeth when she's sleeping too since she doesn't seem to mind having fingers in her mouth.

    Penny doesn't mind having fingers in her mouth (brushing or otherwise) unless we're reaching in to grab something she's eating that she isn't supposed to. Then she'll do the pit bull "lockjaw". She can be really stubborn when she doesn't want to open her mouth. :)

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