Brachycephalic pets have specific  anesthetic and dental needs.

Dental Care in Brachycephalic Breeds

While they do have fabulous, fun personalities, brachycephalic pets (like Pugs, French bulldogs, Boxers, and Shih-Tsu’s) have very specific dental needs. Because the conformation of their head and face is different from what Mother Nature had planned for dogs, there are multiple issues they experience that dogs with a longer skull type do not.

Some of the important problems that brachycephalics experience are rotated and crowded premolar teeth. This predisposes them to the development of periodontal disease.

They can also experience unerupted first premolar teeth, which can lead to dentigerous cysts.

Other things we commonly see are abnormal numbers of teeth, so teeth that ought to be present that are missing or extra teeth beyond what is expected. In addition to that, we also see canine teeth and molars which have not erupted all the way into the mouth and have deep pockets in the soft tissue around them. All in all, while many pet owners enjoy having brachycephalic pets, they do come with very specific oral needs and it’s important to plan for lifelong dental care.

I recommend a procedure at 1 year of age to establish if there are unerupted teeth and to preventatively de-crowd and address any other conformational issues that may be present to set them up for the best possible oral health for life. After that, additional care is determined on a pet by pet basis