Periodontal disease in dogs can cause severe loss of bone around teeth, so much so that the jaw can fracture with minimal pressure. That is what happened to Tetley where both the right and left jaw fractured.
A pathologic fracture is one where the fracture occurs due to something causing the bone to become weak or absent. In this case it was periodontal disease. This is an x-ray showing the fracture on the right jaw.
Patients with these fractures often do not have teeth that Dr. Beckman would normally use to stabilize the jaw using wire and/or acrylics. Without teeth in this patient he “created” teeth by passing wire around the jaws in multiple places.
Composite buttons were bonded to the lower canine teeth and an orthodontic chain used to attach the buttons to the wire.
This formed a matrix or scaffold for placement of a fast drying acrylic that was used to finalize the splint to hold the fractured jaws in place.
Tetley is a lucky dog. His splints were removed after 7 weeks of healing and antibiotics to treat the bone infection that was also present. He now has normal jaw function and is pain free.
