Bones - good or bad?

Are bones good or bad for dog's teeth? Well like many questions the answer is "it depends"!

The reason for this is that it really depends on how your dog approaches chewing on bones and the size of bones you are giving your pooch.

Unfortunately for dogs that are given large hard bones (for example lamb shanks) and attempt to crush these up with their back teeth often physics is against them and they end up with fractured teeth.

The most common tooth fracture we see is a slab fracture on the outside of the carnassial teeth of dogs. These fractures will cause pain, potential death of the tooth, potential infection and often requiring removal of the tooth! It's that serious.

The reason physics is against dogs who try to chew up hard bones is that the carnassial teeth (upper 4th premolar) act like scissors with the lower back teeth. If you put a hard object between an actual pair of scissors and try to close them at some stage the object will flip on its axis or the scissors will bend.

However dogs have their jaw joint that won't allow this to happen so it then comes down to which is stronger - the bone or the tooth? Unfortunately often the tooth is the weaker link and the outer part fractures and this will lead to problems, especially pain!

 

  Left: Rex's carnassial tooth fracture from chewing large bones

 

  Above: carnassial tooth fracture and abscess from American Veterinary Dentistry Society website

Obviously we don't want to put our furry friends in this serious situation so what can we do?

Firstly, there are multiple dental chews on the market that will do the same job cleaning your dog's teeth as bones do. I believe Greenies are the best but Dentastix, pig's ears and other treats will work OK as well.

Secondly, if you do want to give your dog bones then you can either offer them a meaty bone, supervise them eating it and then take it away once they begin to attempt to crunch up the bone; or give them smaller softer bones such as chicken wings or chicken necks that will not harm the teeth.

The key is trying to match the size of the bones to the size of your dog. Remember bones are fed to try to clean the teeth not to break them!

GENERAL RULE OF THUMB: IF ITS TOO HARD FOR YOU TO BREAK OR BEND WITH YOUR HANDS THEN IT"S TOO HARD TO PUT IN YOUR DOGS MOUTH!