Base-narrow canines

The 18 months old German Sheppard dog, came to the dental department with loss of appetite, apatia, irritability during mastication.

It was all due to the base-narrow canines that were present on the lower jaw, and visible during the clinical examination, Fig.1.
 

Base-narrow canines are the most common abnormality in the dog treatable by orthodontic fix appliances.

Orthodontic acrylic of the non-exothermic type is the most common used material to form an inclined plane.

Once formed and the acrylic properly set, the 2 deflecting planes are burred and shaped using special acrylic burrs, see Fig. 2
 

Although the teeth in dogs do not grow like those of horses or rabbits, once the eruption process is finished at around 7 months of age, they have however a natural tendency to supererupt until they hit the opposite tooth surface or, if that is missing, the opposite soft tissue thus causing trauma (oro-nasal fistula).
 

We proceeded in constructing an inclined plane made from non-exothermic acrylic material  (Protemp™ 3 Garant™ ) which was reinforced with 2 Kirschner wires of 1,2 mm diameter and secured bilaterally to the 3rd incisor and canine of the upper jaw with 2 wire cerclages and than covered with light curing composite material (ds-LC Hybrid), see Fig. 3.
 

The above mentioned teeth were prepared for the composite final securing, using an acid enchant (Ketac® Conditioner) rinsing, drying and Multi-Purpose Adhesive®.
 

The alternative treatment techniques or expansion techniques include; an activated orthodontic wire that is cemented directly to the lower canine teeth as in Fig.4 or an screw thread-activated expansion bar, see Fig. 5. Both techniques are only applicable in symmetric (bilateral) base-narrow canines.
 

Fig. 6 and Fig.7 show the orthodontic appliance in final position and canine against the deflecting planes.

The inclined plane will be activated by depositing more acrylic material on the deflecting surfaces bilaterally after 3 weeks. In 2 months, once the mandibular symphisys  is properly stabilized in the new position the device can be safely removed and the canines will remain in the desired position.

DDr. Camil Stoian PhD, Mag. Helene Widmann