# My pup had a tooth pulled, without my consent!



## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

I made an appointment for my 6 yr old Westie to have a dental cleaning, since she had some plaque on her molars.
When I picked her up , the receptionist casually mentioned that they had extracted her molar because it was infected.
I feel that something is not right here. Shouldn't they have gotten my consent to pull the tooth? Or shouldn't the vet at least have talked to me when I picked up my dog?
And to the raw feeders here...can she chew on bones any longer with that molar missing?
Your thoughts are appreciated!


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## Emily1188 (Jun 21, 2011)

Maybe they should have been clearer with you, but it's my understanding that it's very, very common for vets to remove infected or abscessed teeth at the time of a dental. Like, my boss's dog just went under for hers, they called to say she was awake, did great, and they had extracted 2 teeth. They definitely didn't call him mid-surgery to ask. When a tooth is that bad, it causes nothing but pain and as far as I know, nothing much can be done to save it. Extractions during dentals are super routine.

But I do feel the vet should have explained to you that they would remove any teeth that couldn't be saved.

She should be fine with bones (though wait a while after the dental, her gums may be sore). If it bothers her to chew on that side, she'll just use the other. She probably feels much better with the infected tooth gone.


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

Thank you for your reply!!! Exactly what I was looking for! Glad to know it's common for vets to pull infected teeth without consulting the owner....why can't they save an infected tooth, though? She is so young to be losing a molar IMO.


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## asuna (Sep 26, 2013)

they may have handled the situation a bit standoffish i think they shouldve given you more reason, why and why not and how come but they still wouldve had to do it. i would be a little jadded too if they were like oh yeah i pulled a tooth SEE YA NEXT TIME!


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## Fade (Feb 24, 2012)

Our general rule of thumb for dogs is...if its loose / infected / abscessed then we pull it. its generally done during dentals without consent. ( its a dental aka dental work not just called a teeth cleaning ) but I think the procedure should be explained before a procedure is done that is my biggest pet peeve not telling or explaining things to clients. It irks me when things are just done with no explanation. I always try to make it very clear so people understand what exactly the whole procedure is. Someone today just found out when a dog gets spayed its generally a complete hysterectomy never was told that by a vet for all the years she has had dogs and had them spayed. 

Its to expensive and not easy to recover a dogs teeth after a certain point unless you want to go to a dog dentist. Its much easier to pull the teeth then go through the pain and stress of recovering infected, loose or abscessed teeth. Even with antibiotics its hard to reverse...one tooth is pretty good. Sometimes a bunch have to get pulled. They do have doggie dentists for root canals and stuff.


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## SydTheSpaniel (Feb 12, 2011)

In my opinion, there should have been consent at some point. Where I work, we do dentals nearly daily and when the client signs the paperwork, there is a section to specify whether you give the vet consent to pull a tooth or to call first.

I got my dog's teeth cleaned a couple weeks ago at the same place I work and checked 'Yes' to have any teeth pulled that absolutely need to be.

Even more so, I am surprised that the vet did not even tell you personally that the dog had an extraction...


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

Thank you for taking the time to respond!


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## luv mi pets (Feb 5, 2012)

At our clinic all clients must sign an anesthesia form prior to any surgeries. On our dental form there is a clause that the client initials giving us permission to remove teeth at the time of the dental. Root canals can be formed on immobile teeth. Once the tooth has a mobility number greater than 1 the tooth is not considered savable and the tooth is removed, this is even the rule most oral surgeons use in determining whether or not a root canal can be done. 

I know that some clinics will do the dental cleaning and if any problems are found, they are noted and the procedure is finished. Upon pick-up the vet will go over the findings with the owner and prices are discussed. This will run into greater money and your animal has to anesthetized again. This way puts your animal at a greater risk by being put under twice. I would not do this to my animal.

Now it is a question of what molar. Dogs on the upper part of their mouth have four pre-molars and two molars on each side of their mouth. It is not uncommon for the molar one and molar two be so loose that they need to be extracted. Some dogs do not even have molar twos or have lost it without the owner knowing about the missing tooth. Now the premolar four also known as the carnasal tooth is removed usually to slab fractures. Slab fractures cause decay/abscesses because of the direct route by the now exposed root pulp. It is best to remove these or have root canals done as long as there is no movement in the tooth. Movement indicates bone loss. 

For eating bones I would wait for a week to give your dog anything hard. If the 4th premolar was pulled I would wait for a month to give hard toys or bones to your dog. 
The veterinary oral health council website can explain further for you if you have any more questions.


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

I'm surprised they didn't say anything about it when you dropped your dog off, as others have said it's fairly common practice to ask what you would want them to do in the event they find such a tooth.

They should have communicated better, but they're sort of danged if they do, danged if they don't. If they hadn't pulled the tooth and just told you there's a rotten infected tooth in the mouth, a lot of people would get mad because they HADN'T pulled it.


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## Emily1188 (Jun 21, 2011)

sassafras said:


> They should have communicated better, but they're sort of danged if they do, danged if they don't. If they hadn't pulled the tooth and just told you there's a rotten infected tooth in the mouth, a lot of people would get mad because they HADN'T pulled it.


Yep and then the dog has to go under again and you pay for another procedure... :/


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## Fade (Feb 24, 2012)

Fade said:


> Our general rule of thumb for dogs is...if its loose / infected / abscessed then we pull it. its generally done during dentals without consent. ( its a dental aka dental work not just called a teeth cleaning ) but I think the procedure should be explained before a procedure is done that is my biggest pet peeve not telling or explaining things to clients. It irks me when things are just done with no explanation. I always try to make it very clear so people understand what exactly the whole procedure is. Someone today just found out when a dog gets spayed its generally a complete hysterectomy never was told that by a vet for all the years she has had dogs and had them spayed.
> 
> Its to expensive and not easy to recover a dogs teeth after a certain point unless you want to go to a dog dentist. Its much easier to pull the teeth then go through the pain and stress of recovering infected, loose or abscessed teeth. Even with antibiotics its hard to reverse...one tooth is pretty good. Sometimes a bunch have to get pulled. They do have doggie dentists for root canals and stuff.


I wanted to clarify we do explain before the dental about the possibility of pulling teeth. We explain things thoroughly before we start so we dont have to call and get consent during the procedure. We dont have a consent form ...We say if this or this happens this is what we would do...If someone where to say call me and tell me or has a problem with that then we go from there.. for the most part if we just tell them this could happen they trust the judgement of the vet but they know ahead of time. Most of the time in our area the people could care less about the dog losing a tooth the first thing most the clients say is I hope you don't have to pull any teeth so it doesn't cost any more money. In our area its a miracle to get anyone to clean their dogs teeth at any point in the dogs life and they complain about spending $200 on it. So doing anything like root canals and specialty work in our area I think we would literally get laughed at.  people chuckle when we even mention cleaning dogs teeth...So pulling teeth is the best cheapest option for our client base.


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## Kayota (Aug 14, 2009)

I'd rather they pull it than have to pay for treatment and have my dog be in pain even longer. Just me.


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

Bad teeth are painful for dogs and cats 
my vet has always called before any pulling


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

I want to thank everyone for their response!
I'm glad now that they extracted the tooth, it was that big molar in the back.
Special thanks to LUV MI PETs for taking the time to explain it so thoroughly, I appreciate it very much!
This forum is awesome!


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

Now if I could just figure out why they turn my pictures upside down, I'd be happy!


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

Did you get a written estimate before the surgery and sign it and a consent? Whenever we did ANYTHING where an animal was being left without its owner, the owner had to sign an estimate and consent. In the case of dental procedures, they always included the price of a few extractions on the estimate, with the low end of the estimate saying 0 extractions, and the high end saying what it would cost if there were a few extractions so it was clear that it was possible that the pet would need teeth pulled, and what it costs to have them pulled. 

However, following the procedure, when the vet was done with surgeries for the day, either the vet or the vet tech (depending on how complicated the procedure was) would call the owner and let them know what happened, and when the pet was ready to go home so hopefully there would be no surprises at pick up! Unless there was a serious deviation from what the estimate and consent said, the vet would not come out of a procedure to call the owner. 

Having teeth repaired requires a specialist and is very expensive. Most people would probably decline having it done, and if the vet just left the tooth and said "Come back another time and we'll pull it" would piss people off because they'd have to pay for a whole other procedure. I don't think any harm was done to your dog, but based on what happened, if your pets are left for any reason in the future, ask for estimates if they don't give them, and ask specifically for someone to call you if anything that you haven't previously discussed needs to be done. I understand being concerned when things happen without your explicit consent, but it is pretty common to pull teeth during a dental procedure you had consented to. I stopped going to a vet once for lancing an anal gland abscess in my cat without my consent under the guise of "going to the back to get a weight and temp." I was so angry, I let them do the follow up care, then never went back.


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## Sparkles123 (Dec 3, 2012)

They asked if I wanted an estimate and I told them no.
I may very well have signed and initialed a consent form, but I didn't read it, too worried about my girl since she hates the vets. Anyway, I learned to pay attention and all is well and healed. I was just a bit dumb, I guess....none of my dogs ever had a dental, I didn't think that was a necessary procedure, they are dogs after all.....lol


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Yeah, the vets I've used always explained that any nasty teeth would be removed. . .but the price goes up for each extraction, so that's a little annoying, never knowing exactly how much it will cost . But nasty teeth gotta go so that's that.


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## MaseratiLu (Jan 28, 2021)

Sparkles123 said:


> Thank you for your reply!!! Exactly what I was looking for! Glad to know it's common for vets to pull infected teeth without consulting the owner....why can't they save an infected tooth, though? She is so young to be losing a molar IMO.


It shouldn’t be common practice to do anything like that without getting owner consent. Vet assuming owner would say no doing it behind back is stupid. What if one time ends up going really bad. Owner thinks taking pet home but finds out there was accident and pet died. Even if very uncommon once would be too many. If owner took pet there it probably would agree to make sure pet is pain free. Any vet doing that should get shutdown phone call letting owner know is couple minutes and easy to do. It’s scary that it’s common practice to decide owners shouldn’t have say in what cuts or pulls a vet does to there pet. Should doctors do that with peoples kids? Life or death situation would be exception teeth pulling or minor things is just lazy vet that doesn’t feel like walking to phone and getting consent.


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## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

This post is over seven years old and none of the people in this discussion are active here anymore. I'm closing the thread to avoid confusion, but feel free to start a discussion of your own or join in one of our current topics!


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