Tina, a 13 year old Chihuahua was brought Reservoir Veterinary Clinic after her owner noticed something wrong with her eye. Dr Mark Yee examined Tina and found a large swelling under her left eye. Tina’s owner noted the swelling had been getting bigger over the last 2 days. Mark found Tina’s eyes to be in perfect health, but her teeth were extremely diseased. One of her teeth looked particularly bad and Mark was suspicious of a tooth root abscess. Mark recommended that Tina should have an anaesthetic for a full dental examination & removal of any teeth as required.

See the fractured tooth and the circled area showing one of the areas where the infection was drained fromTina was given an anaesthetic so Dr Wayne could examine her mouth. Dr Wayne examined and charted each tooth individually and radiographed two teeth that had been fractured. The radiographs showed one healthy tooth and one diseased tooth. The second tooth was so infected it had caused an abscess to form at its roots. This abscess had burst resulting in the ‘lump’ the owner had seen under Tina’s eye.

Radiographs of the teeth

The diseased tooth was causing Tina a great deal of pain and needed to be removed. Once Dr Wayne removed the diseased tooth, he cleaned and polished the remaining teeth to prevent any further periodontal disease.

Tina recovered from the anaesthetic very well and went home that day on antibiotics to treat any remaining infection. The next day Tina was eating happily and has since made a full recovery.

The removed teeth