Retained Puppy Teeth in Small Breeds: What to Check at Six Months

A baby tooth still sitting beside its adult replacement at six months is a persistent deciduous tooth, and it needs a vet, not another chew. Roughly one extra-small dog in seven has one.

You found it lifting her lip, the way you do. Two fangs on one side, where there should be one. Here's what that tooth does if you leave it, why the six-month rule you keep reading runs late in a small breed, and why no chew shifts it.

What a persistent baby tooth is

Two sets of teeth, one mouth. Your puppy's 28 baby teeth are meant to drop out as the permanent set pushes up underneath. When one won't go and the adult tooth arrives anyway, both end up in the same spot.

Vets tend to call it persistent rather than retained. VCA defines a persistent tooth as one that's still there when the permanent tooth erupts — retained is just the word you searched for.

The rule underneath it is one line. No two teeth belong in the same place at the same time, VCA says, and the Merck Veterinary Manual puts it in terms of space. One of them has to leave.

How often it happens at this size

Waltham Petcare researchers worked through almost three million dogs at one US veterinary chain: sixty breeds, five years of records. Persistent teeth turned up in 7%. In extra-small breeds, under 6.5 kg or about fourteen pounds, it was 15%, higher than every other size band. Weigh your dog before you file that under somebody else's problem.

One breed shows the pattern by itself. Across 61 Yorkshire terriers, canines were the tooth type most often retained: 89.1% in dogs at or under 3 kg, against 12.0% in dogs over 5 kg. That's six and a half pounds against eleven. Same breed, either way.

One caveat, and the paper prints it itself. Dogs on wellness plans had higher odds of a persistent tooth being detected — detected being the paper's own word. Some of what you're reading measures how often a mouth gets looked at.

Where to look, tooth by tooth

VCA ranks incisors third; the Yorkie data put premolars ahead of them. Take the table as where to start looking, not a diagnosis. Use a finger and a good light. Lift the lip, look along the top, then tip her chin up and check the bottom. You're counting fangs, and four is the number you want — two up and two down.

What it costs if the tooth stays

Food packs into the space between the baby tooth, the adult tooth and the gum, and VCA runs that straight to periodontal disease. Merck gets there through crowding. Your puppy's mouth was crowded before any of this started, which is the whole subject of why small dogs get dental disease first. A persistent tooth adds a pocket to a jaw with no room to spare.

Why the lower canine is the one to hurry

Upper canines persist more often. The lower ones do more damage, and the reason is geometry. With the baby tooth still holding the socket, VCA has the permanent lower canine growing on the inside of it, tip pointing at the roof of your puppy's mouth. Merck calls a displaced tooth like that a traumatic occlusion, and says it requires treatment.

There's a second clock on the lower jaw. Inward-pointing baby canines come out early to spare the palate's soft tissue and to release what veterinary dentists call dental interlock. One extraction study says releasing it may let the lower jaw reach full length. See a fang sitting inside another fang, and call your vet this week.

Six months arrives later in a small breed

That's the trap in the six-month rule you keep reading — it describes dogs in general, and the smallest dogs run behind it.

The Yorkshire terrier study measured the lag. At 4.5 kg, about ten pounds, baby canines were estimated to drop at 26.1 weeks. That's six months and change, and dogs at or under 3 kg ran later still.

The permanent canine came up before that, at an estimated 23.8 weeks. So in that breed the adult fang is normally through for a week or two while the baby one is still there. A short overlap isn't what you're watching for.

Watch the tooth, not the birthday. Merck's trigger is the one to hold: once the adult tooth has begun erupting, the baby tooth beside it has missed its exit. The Yorkie authors put the monitoring window at two to seven months; the puppy teething timeline lays out which teeth are due when.

No chew takes a persistent tooth out

We sell dog chews. This isn't a problem a chew solves, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.

A persistent tooth is held in the jaw by its root, and chewing only reaches the crown. That's why VCA and Merck both answer this one with extraction rather than with anything you could hand her.

What a chew is for hasn't changed. Jaw work, a long quiet job, something legal to destroy. What to give a teething puppy sorts which formats belong at her age, and the cuts made for her size sit together in chews for small dogs.

And the ordinary rule still closes every session. Once what's left could go down her throat in one piece, that chew is finished. Swap it for something small, and the end goes out rather than back on your floor.

What the appointment involves

Extraction, under general anesthesia. VCA's dental page has the vet working around the developing roots of the tooth underneath, so it's a procedure you book, not a quick one. The live question is when, and here the two VCA pages disagree.

The puppy teething page calls removal a simple procedure, commonly done at spaying or neutering. The dental page says waiting that long isn't recommended. Merck draws the line by eruption: out it comes once its successor has begun erupting. Its one exception is narrower than it sounds: it covers a baby tooth with no permanent replacement coming — not the doubled-up mouth you're looking into.

The timing has a cost, and you should hear it from us. That same study took 74 puppies' lower baby canines out at eight to twelve weeks, before the adult tooth erupted, and 17.5% later showed enamel defects on it. Operating over a tooth bud that's still forming is why. That argues for letting your vet pick the moment, not for leaving the tooth in.

Ask your vet what she can chew afterwards. Whether a puppy can have lamb covers the protein side.

Retained puppy teeth FAQ

Will a retained puppy tooth fall out on its own?

Sometimes, and it isn't the way to bet. VCA says persistent teeth need removing, and Merck sets the trigger at the moment the permanent tooth erupts. A wobbly one may still drop. A firm one beside a fully erupted adult tooth has missed its exit. Have your vet look rather than wait it out.

Can chewing help a stuck puppy tooth come out?

No. The tooth is held in the jaw by its root, and chewing only reaches the crown. Tug toys and rope just load a tooth the adult one is already crowding. What chew time is good for is the habit — handing one over gets you looking in her mouth, and that's where an extra fang turns up.

Is it too late to remove a retained puppy tooth at one year?

Later is worse, not hopeless. VCA's dental page says that once extraction is delayed, the permanent tooth is unlikely to reach its proper position without orthodontic treatment. The baby tooth still comes out, and the bite may need more work on top. Your vet makes that call from the mouth in front of her, not the calendar.

A persistent baby tooth is a shape problem in a mouth that ran out of room, and no chew has a part in fixing it. Count her fangs on a Sunday. Four is the number. If there's a fifth, book the appointment.