Well, I just had a tooth pulled on my old boy at 12. The problem with monitoring it is that if infection sets in it's likely to be in the root and prior to showing symptoms of infection you could see symptoms of heart stress from infection. A dead tooth is just as likely to cause infection as a live tooth once the root of the tooth has been exposed (which if it broke at the gum line is certain)
Don't assume that because she shows no signs that she's not in pain, dogs are incredibly stoic and Bedlam has broken all 4 of her canines and never once stopped eating or her constant unrelenting chewing of bones all of them were live when she busted them. Havoc had a massive mouth infection that cost him a large portion of both his upper and lower jaws and 5 of his molars on one side and was far more concerned with the toenail I clipped too closely. Even while we were slowly debriding his mouth every other day, I had to remove all hard chewthings from the house as even though the other side was fine, he chewed a bone with the bad side and my living room was COVERED in blood--I came home to that and had to take the bone away from him!
Don't assume that because she shows no signs that she's not in pain, dogs are incredibly stoic and Bedlam has broken all 4 of her canines and never once stopped eating or her constant unrelenting chewing of bones all of them were live when she busted them. Havoc had a massive mouth infection that cost him a large portion of both his upper and lower jaws and 5 of his molars on one side and was far more concerned with the toenail I clipped too closely. Even while we were slowly debriding his mouth every other day, I had to remove all hard chewthings from the house as even though the other side was fine, he chewed a bone with the bad side and my living room was COVERED in blood--I came home to that and had to take the bone away from him!
