Yorkshire Terrier Teeth: Retained Baby Teeth, Gum Disease and How to Keep Them

If you do one thing for a Yorkshire Terrier beyond feeding and walking them, brush their teeth. Dental disease is the most common health problem in the breed by a distance: by two or three years old most Yorkies have gum disease, by five many have lost teeth, and by ten some have none. It is painful, it is expensive, it seeds bacteria into the heart valves and kidneys, and it is behind a surprising amount of the snapping and grumpiness that gets blamed on temperament. It is also largely preventable, and prevention costs thirty seconds a day. The usual honest line: we are not vets. This is what to watch and when to ask.

Why Yorkie teeth go wrong

A Yorkie has the same forty-two adult teeth as a Great Dane, in a jaw the size of your thumb. They crowd and overlap, plaque packs between them, and the gums recede. The jaw bone itself is thin, so the infection that follows gum disease reaches the bone quickly; in advanced cases the lower jaw is so eaten away it can fracture during a dental or while chewing. On top of that, toy breeds often keep their baby teeth, and a double row is a plaque trap from the start.

Retained baby teeth

The adult teeth come in between four and seven months. In this breed the baby canines, the fangs, frequently don't fall out, so you see two canines side by side on one or both sides. The retained tooth pushes the adult tooth crooked, traps food and hair, and starts gum disease early. Check the mouth weekly from five months. Any baby tooth still there at seven months should be removed, usually under the same anaesthetic as neutering. It is a short procedure and it saves the adult tooth next to it.

What gum disease looks like

• Early: bad breath, a yellow-brown line at the gum edge, red gums that bleed when brushed.
• Established: heavy brown tartar, receding gums, loose teeth, drooling, chewing on one side, dropping food, pawing at the mouth, going off hard food.
• Abscess: a swelling under one eye, sometimes bursting and weeping, from an infected root of the big upper cheek tooth. It looks like an eye problem and it is a tooth.
• Behaviour: a Yorkie who snaps when the face is touched, stops playing with toys, or is grumpy at the groomer. Pain hides as behaviour in this breed all the time.

Daily brushing

Start at ten weeks as a game: a dab of dog toothpaste on your finger, a lick, a treat. Then a finger run along the outside of the teeth, a treat. Then a finger brush or a very small soft toothbrush, ten seconds a side, a treat. Within a month it is a thirty-second habit. Human toothpaste is toxic to dogs; dog toothpaste is designed to be swallowed. Brush the outside surfaces of the teeth where the tartar builds; you don't need to do the inside. Daily is the target; three times a week is the minimum that does anything. If your Yorkie is already an adult who has never been brushed, the same steps work, slowly, and a professional clean first gives you a clean surface to maintain.

Dental cleanings under anaesthetic

Even a well-brushed Yorkie needs a professional dental every one to two years, and an unbrushed one needs it yearly. A proper dental is done under general anaesthetic: scaling above and below the gum line, polishing, and dental X-rays, which matter enormously in this breed because most of the damage is at the roots, invisible from above. 'Anaesthesia-free' cleaning scrapes the visible tartar, misses the disease, and stresses the dog; it is cosmetic.

Owners worry about anaesthetics in a small or old dog. The worry is reasonable and the answer is usually still yes: a modern anaesthetic with pre-op bloods, a warmed table, fluids, a glucose check and monitoring is very safe, and an infected mouth is a bigger risk to the heart and kidneys than the anaesthetic is. Ask your vet to talk you through the risks for your dog.

Extractions

A dental in a middle-aged Yorkie often ends with several teeth out, and owners are upset. Don't be. A tooth with a diseased root is a source of pain and infection, not a useful tooth, and a Yorkie with twelve healthy teeth eats, plays and lives better than one with forty rotten ones. Dogs with no teeth at all manage soft food happily. The vet is not being cavalier; they are being kind.

What to chew, and what not to

Dental chews with a proven seal help a little; think of them as a supplement to brushing, not a replacement, and count the calories. Soft-ish rubber toys are fine. Bones, antlers, hooves, nylon bones and ice cubes crack Yorkie teeth, and a cracked tooth is an extraction. Dry food does not clean teeth in any meaningful way, whatever the packet says. Water additives are mild. Brushing is the thing.

The whole life, in one line

Brush daily from ten weeks, check for double canines at six months, accept a dental with X-rays when your vet says, and treat a swelling under the eye or a change in chewing as a tooth until proven otherwise. That is the difference between a Yorkie who eats crunchy food at fifteen and one who lost their teeth at six. The health by age guide puts it on the timeline.