Teeth growing into cheek

[Littlefizz]

I've just noticed Penny's one upper tooth is growing into her cheek. I feel terrible that I didn't notice sooner. I knew she needed them trimmed I just didn't realize how long her one top tooth was. I can make a vet appointment tomorrow but not for tomorrow and I don't want wait any longer because she is clearly in pain. I don't have dog nail clippers and it would be easy to trim the one tooth short enough so it's not in her cheek anymore. I've read finger nail clippers work too but I'm doubtful they are strong enough. What do you guys think?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Poor girl...sorry I have no experience with this situation all I can offer is to get her to the vet asap

 

[jorats]

You can try the fingernail clippers, the teeth aren't that strong. If you feel confident that you can do this then go for it but I'm sure it won't hurt to wait till tomorrow.

 

[Littlefizz]

Ok, so I just went on a... maybe hour journy to walmart. I got there two minutes to close and got some dog nail clippers. I can call and make an appointment tomorrow but it might be another day after that before the vets can see her. So I'm just going to trim a little off so it's not causing her pain. I feel so bad I can't believe I didn't notice it was this bad until now. I suck.

Ok, so I had Penny all ready to go in a towel so she would get her little fingers out of the way. I'm pulling her cheeks back, and she squeeks so I'm all "aww I'm so sorry sweety" giving her time to squirm and so I was just re positioning myself to pull the cheek back and get the clippers around the tooth, when all the sudden her tooth was hanging out of her mouth. I haven't even touched it yet. She looked as surprised as me, so I took it out of her mouth, looked inside and saw a little blood. But she didn't look like she was in a lot of pain, she just sat in my lap cleaning her mouth (I'm assuming she was tasting the blood and trying to get it to stop or something) anyways just two minutes later and it was no longer bleeding. I'm going to give her some yummy baby food and we're going to cuddle and watch the new transformers movie I bought on my journy to walmart. Does anyone have any ideas as to why her tooth just fell out?

 

[pshuga03]

You can't beat yourself up so bad. Teeth are inside the mouth and ratties hide their pain very well. I understand where you're coming from though, with feeling guilty, but *hugs* you do not suck :cuddle:

 

[Maple]

Upper teeth are best trimmed with the guillotine type trimmers that are made for cat claws. Its a 2 person job and you have to watch you don't clip any mouth parts including the tongue. Try not to jump when you hear the sound of the teeth snapping. Often the tooth/teeth will split or snap off and bleed and make sure you have tweezers and a cotton swab handy as sometimes the tooth chunks fall inside the mouth and you have to try and scoop them out. Trimming teeth is just NOT easy and if at all possible I would leave this job to the vet.
Good luck.

 

[jorats]

My guess is that she broke it off herself while trying to eat. Or it could be she has bad teeth and become loose as part of it.

I knew a girl with a rat where all four front teeth would fall out and grow back in over and over again.

 

[Godmother]

That must have been just a tad stressful! I hope that you'll be able to get her seen by the vet anyway, just in case there is an infection.

Kisses and banana mash to her! She'll be much happier without that tooth, as long as it doesn't cause her problems with the bottom one below the one that fell out.

 

[Joanne]

I would think that the tooth was sticking in her cheek in the first place because it was already loose and had shifted position.
People can lose teeth to gum disease (periodontitis) - the bone recedes away, the gum follows, until the tooth is so loose it comes out (or gets pulled out). I don't know if rats can have the same disease process, but if so, at least it is relatively painless.
Now you'll have to get rat dentures made! :laugh4: