Caring for Scissor Bite in Dogs

Series Summary

There are many ways in which our dogs are self-sufficient, but given the fact that the once wild species is now existing primarily in households and in domesticated circumstances, their diets and routines are drastically different than they would be in the wild. Ours pets teeth require a fair amount of attention to ensure they are able to maintain healthy canines, teeth and gums, especially as they advance in age. Since dogs don't have typically carnivorous diets (aren't hunting their own prey, sharpening teeth by breaking through skin and bone to eat), they require special toys and instruments to help keep their teeth sharp, as well as the occasional tooth-brushing to ensure their long-term oral health. This is especially true for dogs that might get the occasional “human food” sweet snack or scrap at home.

In this free video clip series, our expert canine oral hygienist will explain the basic idea of maintaining your dog's healthy teeth and gums with tips and techniques for brushing, inspecting for problems, and eliminating and preventing tartar. You will also learn how to prepare your dog for a trip to the veterinarian for a tooth checkup, as well as methods for promoting healthy teeth at home.

This series is an Equilibrio Films production.

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Elise McMahon for Expert Village.com and in this video series we are talking about tooth care on your dog. If you would like to find out more about my services, you can visit my website at www.canineheadstart.com. So in this video clip we will be talking about bites. Different breeds would have different bite standards. These guys have a bite center that calls for a scissors bite and a scissors bite is when you have the top teeth aligning right in front of but lined up to the bottom teeth and these would be the incisors and I am going to show them in a second. So that would be a scissors bite. A level bite which some breeds have is when the top teeth are actually level with and not in front of level with the incisors of the bottom teeth. That would be called a level bite. Some breeds because of the shape of their face will have an over shot jaw and under shot jaw and what that means is if the jaw is under shot then the bite here for the incisors and the upper jaw would be here and the lower jaw would be here. That is called under shot. If it is an over shot jaw you will have your upper teeth here and you would have your lower jaw out here like that in an over shoot. We are going to take a look at what a nice scissors bite looks like in this guy here. You can come and have a look, a scissors bite. This is a very nice scissor bite. You can see if you look from the side as well how the upper teeth are coming right in front of but aligned with the bottom teeth. It is a very nice scissors bite. "