Tooth extraction

[RedRobyn2021]

I want to know what other dog owners think

My 5yo lab broke one of her front teeth about 9 months ago, she was absolutely fine. Not entirely sure how it happened tbh.

During her annual check up the vet has said she will make a note and we should get it removed before it becomes considered an historical problem by our insurance. The cost is £500 so it would cost us £100 in excess, which isn't great obviously but manageable.

My concern is the dog is fine (the vet agrees), is it worth putting her through being put to sleep and having it removed when she's in no discomfort?

There is a possibility of infection in the future and if that happened we would obviously have to get it removed and we may have a problem with our insurance agreeing to pay then

What would you do?

I'd get it removed - simply because the vet is right (and has to make a note of it) that the insurance may not pay out if it does get horribly infected because you were aware and it is a historical issue etc.

It's such a small procedure in the grand scheme of things that can go wrong - but if it does get infected, then it can get nasty AND expensive because you're looking at a veterinary dental specialist (and they charge a bloody arm and a leg - we're talking thousands potentially, not a few hundred).

Pre-emptive solutions are always my go to (as someone who was a vet and as a dog owner) because once it goes wrong, it's more complicated to fix and way more expensive.

Mine had a tooth out as he broke it, but I noticed straight away and his gum was swollen. He'd done it when playing tug of war with another dog :( so there was quite a lot of trauma.

He was fine with the op and no health issues BUT I brushed his teeth daily and since, he will not allow me to do that, which is obviously now an absolute pain. So maybe the op was not as straight forward for him.

I would get it removed before it becomes a problem.

If it becomes infected, or starts causing issues with her gums, you could find yourself with an even bigger bill because (in insurance land) you knew it was broken and chose to leave it rather than doing something about.

A tooth removal on a young, healthy dog is a straightforward procedure - getting rid of multiple teeth and dealing with potential infections is much more complicated (and expensive!).

Bloody hell £500!!!! I paid approx £116 for a scale and polish and 5 back teeth to be removed from my aging dog!
Not helpful I know but I do think some vets just see customers as walking £50 notes.

Removing a fractured healthy tooth can take some time. The procedure will use a qualified vet and a qualified nurse for at least an hour. There will be a dental machine that probably cost £5K, and anaesthetic machine that cost £3k, a multi parameter machine at £2k and possibly dental x-ray at around £7K. That's without any drugs involved.

So when my vet did a full scale and polish and removed 5 apparently rotting back teeth from an elderly dog he didnt require any of the above?

Rotting teeth are much simpler to remove. Removing a healthy adult tooth is a big job that can’t rushed as there is the risk of breaking the jaw if too much force is applied.

Is your vet independent? They have much lower costs for overheads than corporates. A dental at my place starts at £1000 as everything has full mouth X-rays

I don’t think £500 is a bad price. My (now deceased dog) had a broken tooth that I left in and it got infected so had to have it removed along with some other dodgy teeth and that cost me nearly £1.5k.

I think it's that your price is incredibly, incredibly cheap rather than that £500 is particularly extortionate

I paid that for my dog to get neutered about four years ago, so paying that for a fairly complex dental surgery seems like an absolute bargain to me.

My vet is a small independent mainly serving a not very wealthy farminv community. From reading other comments on here about what posters have paid for other treatment I realise how lucky I am.
im sorry I think £500 to remove 1 tooth is an outrage, dentals starting at £1000 how can they justify that when I paid £116? It’s all about insurance everyone has it now a days and vets are taking advantage of it.
Im an ex horse owner, many years ago I rang up my internationally renowned equestrian vets and said one of my youngsters was slightly lame, vet: “leave it out it will probably come sound by the end of the year it’s not a breed prone to X” me: “it’s insured” vet: “oh in that case bring it up to our hospital we’ll do X Y snd Z tests (costing 1000s then) and then tell you to leave it out and hope it comes sound but the end of the year only of course there didn’t actually say the last bit but that’s what they would have said.

Let's not turn this into another thread bashing vets as greedy - unless they're independent, they have absolutely no control over their prices and just charge what corporate tell them to charge.

We do happen to be lucky in having an independent vet but even they wouldn't charge as little as £116 for something as complex as you describe.

I would get it removed in a relatively young dog like yours. If it was a senior dog I would wait and see, as the anaesthesia is more risky as they get older.

We had a dog with a broken tooth from the age of 2. He died with the tooth in place, giving him no problem at the age of 16. We kept an eye on it and it never caused any issues at all.

Without seeing the breakdown of the estimation, we cannot be sure if this price includes pre anaesthetic blood tests, potentially a dental x-ray, if they are going to do a scale and polish at the same time (significantly easier to assess the dogs other teeth and their condition while they’re already on the table) it also includes the use of the drug itself, the time it takes for the vet, and the vet nurse to perform the dental surgery, monitor the anaesthetic and then monitor the dog as he/she comes around. It includes the cost of the equipment usage. I don’t think it’s outrageously expensive personally, especially considering to go to a private dentist as a human and not be put completely under wouldn’t be much different as a price. Insurance doesn’t automatically increase the price of treatment. Insurance allows for owners to seek out the gold standard of care if they do wish too, because the financially better option of waiting it out to see if it gets worse isn’t an issue if your pet is covered by the policy. It can be the difference of you doing further investigations and finding the root of the problem, or nipping a potential one before it starts without the added stress of whether or not you can afford it.

My puppy had root canal at a dental vet specialist for a chipped canine caused by trauma. Far less invasive and saved her tooth. Vet said it was likely she was or had been in pain but dogs are very good at hiding pain (as it’s a weakness in the pack). Anyway, insurance covered it bar the excess. Just maybe something to consider.

My vet is a small independent practice who I know doesn’t overcharge, Ive been with them years - they frequently have done wee things for free without even charging me for an appointment, follow ups after a procedure are always free, if it’s cheaper to get things online they’ll tell me that or if there’s a human cheaper equivalent they’ll tell me that too.

Sedation, check up and bloods were just under £200 on my dog not long ago, £40 for the hour long appointment, £50 to run the blood tests and the rest was the drugs to knock him out and wake him up again.

They didn’t charge me for the extra vet nurse because my dog can’t be handled by just 2 people (me and the vet, hence the sedation) or the nail clip they did for me while he was out or extra for the longer than usual appointment.

So yeah, while some chains are terribly priced, your vet is also very very cheap, so it might skew how you’re thinking things should cost tbh.