Interesting Facts About Dog Teeth For Your Canine’s Oral Health
Dog is the most loyal and faithful animal companion we humans have on this planet. It is because of this loyalty and faithfulness that we totally love and adore this four legged pal. Impossible to return what our furry buddies do for us but by knowing about them we can at least care for them in a better way and reverse some of its true loyal love.
True dog lovers are always interested in knowing and inquiring more and more about their furry buddies health and happiness; when it comes to good canine health one can’t ignore the fact that a dog’s overall health depends largely on healthy teeth and gums. As the animal depends on us for maintaining oral hygiene not caring means your dog’s overall health is at risk.
So, it is important to know about your fur pal’s teeth and how to keep them in good condition. Let’s share some of the interesting facts about dog teeth which will not only be informative but will greatly help maintain your dog’s good oral hygiene.
Facts about puppy teeth
- Do you know that you can evaluate your puppy’s age by assessing its teeth and more accurately. The type and position of the teeth will greatly help in determining a puppy’s age. Newborn puppies do not have teeth until 3-4 weeks of age when the first baby teeth pops out which are small and sharp, two middle incisors appear at 4-5 weeks, two molars appear at 4-6 weeks, the third incisors at 5-6 weeks and the third molars erupt when the puppy is at 6-8 weeks of age.
- Puppies shed their first set of teeth at a predetermined age.
- Baby canines have fewer teeth than adult dogs.
- Milk teeth are replaced by permanent teeth when the baby canine is about 6 weeks old but it is also possible that these teeth don’t fall and new teeth grow out which according to the veterinarians can cater to a host of problems
- There are 28 baby teeth which do not include molars.
Facts about an adult dogs teeth
- Do you know that you can approximate a dog’s age by looking at its teeth? Though an adult dog’s teeth will only give a rough estimate of the dog’s age but still would be helpful as a starting point.
- Dogs like humans are diphyodont, meaning that they develop two sets of teeth. The first set called the baby teeth, milk teeth or deciduous teeth. The second set of teeth is permanent teeth.
- Depending on the breed the number of adult dog’s teeth vary but mostly have 42 teeth.
- Incisors are the first ones which replace milk teeth. An adult dog has 12 incisors, which are equally distributed on the upper and lower jaws (two on the upper jaw and two on the lower jaw).These teeth are actually meant for nibbling, gnawing and biting the food.
- Canines are the second ones on the replacement list. These are also known as cuspids or fangs and are located behind the incisors. An adult dog has four canines, which are equally distributed on the upper and lower jaws (two on the upper jaw and two on the lower jaw).canines are the daunting and ferocious ones which help the dog to grab and hold food in its mouth and to self-counter and defend if needed.
- The last ones to replace the milk teeth are Pre-molars which are located at the back of the canines. An adult dog has 16 pre-molars, which are divided into a set of four on either side of both the upper and lower jaws. These teeth are used for ripping and tearing the food. All the major chewing of food is done through pre-molars.
- Molars are the ones which only adult dogs have. There are ten molars, two on each side of the upper jaw and three on each side of the lower jaw. Molars are actually used for crushing and grinding food.