This set of questions is meant for people (like me) who  did not have any sort of dentistry  taught in vet school.  (We were told in our GI course to just pick up the booklet printed by  the Milkbone company & that would cover everything we need to know.)

QUESTIONS

1. The canine tooth has an apical delta instead of an apical foramen like a human tooth has. What is the difference & why is it clinically important?
    
2. On the teeth located on the side of the mouth (premolars & molars)  the surface that  faces rostrally is called the _______________ surface, while the surface that faces caudally is  called the _______________ surface.  The surface that faces the outside world is called the _______________ surface & the surface that faces midline is the _______________ surface for the lower arcade & the ___________ surface for the upper arcade.  The surface that  opposes the similar surface on the opposite arcade (the biting surface) is the _______________ surface.
    
3. How many adult teeth  does a dog have? A cat?
   
   How many deciduous teeth does a puppy have? A kitten?
    
4. Which premolar doesn't a cat have?
    
5. What is dental attrition & what is dental abrasion?
    
6. If attrition or abrasion is a slow process ( & usually it is) the pulp
   chamber is never  exposed.  Why not?
    
7. Retained decidous canine teeth should be extracted.  List all the reasons you can think of  why.
    
8. What teeth are considered the dog's chewing teeth?
    
9. What is the mucogingival line & what is its clinical significance?
    
10. Matching (match each item a - e on the left with 1, 2 or 3 on the right)
    
    a) Retrusive bite                1) prognathism
    b) overshot jaw                  2) normal bite
    c) Protrusive bite               3) brachynathism
    d) Scissor bite
    e) Undershot jaw
     
11. What is a Cingulum?
     
12. There is a strongly genetic condition which can entail:
    
    - the midline of the upper arcade not matching up with the midline of lower arcade
    
    -one side of the head is bigger than the other
    
    -dysymmetry of the hard palate's rugal pattern
    
    -scissor bite on one side, retrusive bite on the other side
    
    What is the common name for this strongly genetic condition?
     
13. Describe the sequence of events leading up to periodontal disease starting with the  formation of the cuticle.
     
14. Periodontal disease is grade 1-5 with 5 being the worst.  What grade goes with each of  the descriptions below:
    
    a) edema of the peridontium & pocket formation
    b) tooth falls out by itself
    c) marginal gingivitis
    d) gingivitis with edema
    e) deep pocket formation with pus & bone loss
     
15. There are 3 pathognomonic signs signifying pathology of a tooth's soft inner tissues  (indicationg endodontics).  What are they?
     
16. How long after a tooth FX does infection set in? 
     
17. When a tooth is broken off, how long is the tooth acutely painful for?
     
18. What percentage of periapical abscesses fistulate?
     
19. List as many contraindications for root canal therapy as you can think of.
     
20. The following "stuff" is used in root canal therapy.  What is each used for?
    
    a) Hedstrom file
    b) "R-C" Prep
    c)  Paper points
    d)  Zinc oxide/eugenol
    e)  Lentulo spiral paste filler
    f)  gutta percha point
    g) Calcium hydroxide
    
    
    
    
     

ANSWERS

1. Instead of having a hole in the bottom of the tooth (foramen), dogs have a delta of little  holes.  This means that when doing a root canal, the human dentist will need an x-ray to  see when his/her file is at the bottom of the tooth or has gone through into
   bone.  The  veterinary dentist will feel the file hit the bottom & won't have to take as many x-rays.
   
   
   
   
    
2. rostral - mesial surface
   caudal - distal surface
   outside - buccal surface
   inside upper arcade - palatal surface
   inside bottom arcade - lingual surface
   bite surface - occlusal surface
   
   
   
   
    
3. The adult dog has 42 teeth.  The adult cat has 30.
   The puppy has 28 teeth & the kitten has 26.
   
   
   
   
    
4. The cat does not have a first upper premolar (nomenclature starts with the second upper  premolar)
   
   
   
   
    
5. Dental attrittion is the wearing of teeth against other teeth.  Dental abrasion is the  wearing of teeth against a foreign object (usually the animal's own hair coat - worn teeth  are very common in animals with itchy skin problems).
   
   
   
   
    
6. If the wearing of the tooth is slow, the pulp chamber actually recedes & the  odontoblasts that line the pulp chamber cover up the hole with secondary (also called  "sclerotic") dentin.  This dentin  looks kind of like a central dark spot when you look down
   on the tooth but a probe cannot enter the pulp chamber.
   
   
   
   
    
7. Retained deciduous teeth collect food in the area between the baby tooth & the adult  tooth.  This promotes periodontal disease.  The adult tooth does not come in at the proper  location if there is a baby tooth taking up space there.  The palate can be
   traumatized by the  adult tooth coming in in the wrong location.  The periodontal ligament of the adult tooth  will be weakened where it is touching the baby tooth.
   
   
   
   
    
8. The upper fourth premolar (which those "in the know"  no longer call a carnaissial  tooth) is the dog's chewing tooth on top.  Molar one is the chewing tooth below.
   
   
   
   
    
9. The mucogingival line is the line around the arcade of teeth  in the gum. You might  have to open your dog's mouth to see what I mean but the concept will become  immediately obvious once you do.  This line represents the amount of periodontal  attachment.  Fistulae below this line are generally periodontal & those on or
   above it are generally endodontic.
   
   
   
   
    
10. In the retrusive bite the mandible is set backwards from the maxilla. This is also called brachynathism or an overshot jaw.  The protrusive bite is a prognathism or an under shot  jaw.  The scissor bite is generally thought of as normal though in 20% of
    breeds the  protrusive bite is normal.  A retrusive bite is never normal.
    
    
    
    
     
11. The cingulum is the little " bulb" at the base of an incisor just at the gum line.  You can  feel yours with you tongue right now as you are reading this if you want to. In a scissor  bite, the lower incisors should interlock with the singulums of the upper incisors.
    
    
    
    
     
12. This strongly genetic condition is called a "Wry mouth."
    
    
    
    
     
13. How periodontal disease happens:
    
    a) a cuticle of salivary proteins is absorbed by the enamel surface (this cuticle reforms within hours of polishing)
    
    b)  Bacteria adhere to the cuticle
    
    c) There seems to be a flora change from Gram + to Gram -, from aerobic to anaerobic,  from non-motile to motile & colonies of bacteria begin growing at the gingival margin.
    
    d)  The colonies fuse to form a continuous bacterial deposit.  This is plaque.
    
    e) The plaque mineralizes forming calculus which in turn gets covered with more plaque.
    
    f)  Toxins in the plaque & in the calculus cause gingival swelling which opens the gingival  sulcus.
    
    g)  Food gets trapped in the sulcus leading to more bacteria & more plaque & the retraction  of the gingiva becomes self-perpetuating.  Once cementum is exposed, the calculus attaches  with even greater strength than it did on the enamel.
    
    
    
    
     
14. edema & pocket formation - Grade 3
    tooth falls out - Grade 5
    marginal gingivitis - Grade 1
    gingivitis w/edema - Grade 2
    deep pocket, pus, bone loss - Grade 4
    
    
    
    
     
15. The three indications for endodontics are:
    
    a) exposure of the pulp chamber (broken tooth etc)
    b) discolored teeth (red, blue or grey - pulpal necrosis)
    c)  Fistula on or above the mucogingival line, or under eye or under chin
    
    
    
    
     
16. It only takes 4-6 hours for infection to set in a broken tooth.  If you can seal the tooth  within this period, you can do a vital pulpotomy.  (As a general rule, if the pulp chamber bleeds, you have decent chance of success with a vital pulpotomy otherwise (in dogs over age 18 mos) you have to do a root canal.
    
    
    
    
     
17. Broken teeth are acutely painful for 72 hours but I gather this condition is analogous to  glaucoma in that after the acute stage it still hurts but the pawing & rubbing & crying stops  so owners are misled into thinking it no longer hurts.  Once the tooth is
    fixed one way or  another often behavior changes for the better are seen (we infer that this is because the pain  has really stopped).
    
    
    
    
     
18. Only 20% of periapical abscesses fistulate.  This means there are a lot of teeth that need root canals & the only way we know is to look for signs other than abscessation.
    
    
    
    
     
19. Don't even think about a root canal if:
    
    a) the pulp chamber is closed (dogs > 11 years).  As aging occurs, the odontoblasts in the  pulp chamber lay down secondary dentin & the chamber gets narrower & narrower until it  is actually filled in.
    
    b)  A longitudinal fx below the gum line.  You will never be able to get a complete seal. Forget it.  Extract.
    
    c)  the tooth is decidous.  Just pull it.  What were you thinking?  (In humans, of course,  you might want to save the decidous tooth because it could be around 10 years or so. In  animals, 6 months of tooth is not worth saving when a perfectly good tooth is going to  replace it anyway.)
    
    d) animal is < 18 months old.  In these animals apexification is probably not complete (the  bottom of the tooth hasn't closed) & you can forget a seal.
    
    
    
    
     
20. In the root canal:
    
    Hedstrom file - the file that you use to file out & remove the pulp.  There are of course  other types of files
    
    RC prep - a chelator that you dip your file in to help soften the dentin of the chamber.  This  helps you get the chamber fully clean
    
    Paper points - funny looking paper tubes that you stick in the chamber to dry the chamber out.
    
    Zinc Oxide/Eugenol - the stuff that you use to seal the apex & fill the canal. Generally, you mix this up into a paste yourself.
    
    Lentulo spiral paste filler - the gadget that you use to fil the chamber with ZOE.
    
    Gutta percha points - rubbery guy that you stack into the canal so as to mush the ZOE out into all the little dentinal tubules.  IN this way the bacteria are permanently sealed away  where they can't cause any trouble (sort of like in " The Casque of Amantillado" for those  who are Edgar Allen Poe fans).
    
    Calcium Hydroxide - when you're done sealing the apical 1/3 of the tooth, you still need to seal the access hole you drilled to get in in the first place.  You'll probably use composite or  amalgam (probably composite) but composite won't stick to eugenol so you need a cap of  some kind to separate the eugenol from the composite.  This cap is CaOH.
     

I learned this stuff from the AAHA dental seminars which I highly recommend for the dentally ignorant.  Even if you don't want to be a dentist, you might want to at least learn some basics if you were never taught them in school.