Dental Malocclusion in Puppies: Aiko's Story

Aiko is a delightfully tiny fluffball who was only a 9-week-old puppy when we met her and her new family. She’s a female Moodle and even now, as an almost fully mature dog, she’s a petite 3.1kg.

During that first appointment, Dr Kimberley identified a dental malocclusion, which is quite common in ‘oodle’ breeds. This meant her lower left canine tooth was base narrow and pressing into her palate every time she closed her mouth. As you can imagine, biting yourself with those sharp puppy teeth is terribly painful.

Aiko was booked in the following week for Dr Nicole to remove the problematic deciduous tooth to prevent further trauma while waiting for her adult teeth to develop.

Following the extraction, we then had to wait and watch Aiko’s permanent (adult) teeth erupt over the next few months. We needed to see whether they would develop the same problem so we could intervene at the right time if necessary.

It’s not unusual for small dogs to have delayed eruption of their permanent teeth, and this was the case for Aiko. She was seven months old before they had all finally come through. Unfortunately, her deciduous teeth also refused to fall out, which can make malocclusions even worse. In total, she retained three deciduous canines and two upper premolars.

The goal was to remove some of Aiko’s less important incisor teeth to create enough space for her canine teeth, which play a much more important structural role, to move into the correct position without the need for orthodontics.

At this stage, ball play with a rubber ball can also be very helpful. Soon after eruption, the teeth are still quite mobile, and the gentle pressure from the ball can encourage the lower canines into a more desirable position, provided there is enough space.