I have a 5.5 month old large breed puppy at the moment.  She has two retained puppy incisors (milk teeth) in her lower jaw.  The two right in the middle. 

The adult teeth have come through in front of them, and have been pushed forwards by them slightly.  However, fortunately she still has a scissor-bite - which I'm checking regularly.

She now has all her adult incisors, adult molars and adult canines and she has lost all her other puppy teeth, except for one canine which I think is going to come out soon.  (Canines are the last to be lost.)

I've tried playing vigorous tug with her, giving her raw meaty knuckle bones to chew on etc etc, but these two puppy teeth remain and are not loose.

I've done some googling but most stuff I can find online is about canines being retained, not incisors.  The concern seems to be that food will get trapped between the adult and puppy canine and an infection set in - but (unlike with retained canines) her retained incisors are not close up to her adult teeth, there is gum between them and nowhere for food to get trapped.  I did find one account online of a 4yo dog with one retained puppy incisor still, who'd never had any problems with it.

I know that, if I take her to the vet, they are going to want to do a general anaesthetic to remove them (every single vet article online agrees!) and I just don't want that as she is quite a sensitive pup.  We are doing great at the moment, but to me there is a huge risk of her having a negative experience at the vet and with strangers, in a formative period of her life if she has surgery now.  If she were older and more mature, I'd be less concerned about the procedure.  So I am hoping to wait till 9-12 months...and meanwhile checking frequently to be sure her bite stays ok.

Does anyone have experience of a puppy with retained incisors this late, alongside the adult teeth?  Did the teeth eventually come out by themselves?  Thx...

> Does anyone have experience of a puppy with retained incisors this late, alongside the adult teeth?  Did the teeth eventually come out by themselves?

Yes I had a pup like this.  Never did come out alone.   I preferred the GA to leaving them in TBH.

Thanks Jean.  What age did you have them removed at?

if them teeth which should have come out, start to go grey to black best to get the vet to take a look

> and meanwhile checking frequently to be sure her bite stays ok

I would think the problem with that is you'll only know after the fact, once the bite is thrown off? As the lower jaw tends to grow on a little after the top one stops that small amount the teeth have been pushed forward already may throw her bite out by a year old. I would have hoped that a knuckle bone would do the trick, as it hasn't I'd op for vet removal now and hope the adult teeth realign as she's still growing.

I'd have them taken out if they show no sign of coming out without 'help'.   As said, if you keep watching, you may find it's too late to prevent the bite from going wrong.

I'd hate to have them removed by the vet when they would have come out anyway though... And I've read that the surgery can be tricky because they need to remove the puppy teeth without touching or damaging the roots of the adult teeth that are very close, otherwise the adult teeth will also die and fall out.  I found a couple accounts of people who'd experienced that and were left with just an empty space in the gum because the dog had neither adult nor puppy teeth.  So I'd rather they just come out naturally TBH.

I only wish the ones that should have come out were discoloured because that's the first sign they are dying and going to come out by themselves, but they're not - they're pearly white and firmly attached.  Despite lots of knuckle bones and tug. 

I don't think the bite will go wrong now, because if anything, the old puppy teeth are moving further in, rather than the new adult teeth moving out...

Milk teeth fall out when their roots reabsorb causing the tooth to fall out. If for some reason this reabsorption doesn't happen then the teeth just won't fall out by themselves.

I know, I was just hoping that maybe the adult teeth would continue to extend their roots and cut off the puppy roots... but maybe not...

See: "Because the permanent tooth may be seriously compromised as a result, the earliest possible extraction date beyond six months of age is strongly advised.  The problem, however, is that extraction of deciduous teeth is a far more delicate procedure than it might initially appear. For example, if the procedure is brusquely undertaken, damage to the adjacent permanent teeth resulting in compromised integrity is a distinct possibility, as is the possibility of deciduous tooth root fracture."

We're not at 6 months old yet...

https://www.embracepetinsurance.com/health/retained-deciduous-teeth

>We're not at 6 months old yet...

No, you've got a couple of weeks yet. But I wouldn't wait till 9 months or so as you suggested earlier.

He was 4 months when I had them removed.

Ok, I will give it a few more weeks and check the bite daily and then go to the vet... :(

When a pup my boy would gnaw out the marrow of a half antler using his incisors, it might help to make it loose and then nature might do the rest.  Just a thought.

Thanks, yes, we've tried that - and knuckle bones, buffalo horns, Yak chews - but I think as someone says above, if the tooth root hasn't dissolved then chewing on stuff isn't going to help the tooth come out.  That kind of thing is probably good for encouraging teeth whose roots have started to pretty much go, to loosen up.  But I'm still trying it all...

Well, we're off to the vet tomorrow and I'm sure it will be surgery next week to get them out

Good Luck I wish you well.  I'm sure that you're doing the right thing.

Thanks.  As suspected, surgery a week today (Tues). 

I really like our vet.  I've got trazadone to give the night before and morning of the surgery, to help reduce stress.  Then I can stay with her whilst she has the pre-med injection to distract/restrain her myself and wait whilst she gets sleepy - then they will take her through to the back - so she will be totally out when they put the IV in her.  Then they will call me as soon as they remove the anaesthetic tube, to come wait until she is ready to go, so she doesn't need to wait in a cage and get stressed.  It just all makes me feel much better about it.