I was brushing Ava's teeth this weekend and noticed that one of them looked a little funky. Its her last premolar on the top - the biggest tooth in her head. It looks as if a little bit of it is chipped away on the outside of it (the part that faces her cheek), but its not bad enough for me to see the pulp or any other important parts. Stupid me; I had noticed it before, but it was one of those things that I saw, but didn't really make the connection to "hmm, that's not normal." And now I'm worried about it Doesn't seem to be bothering her and she still chews on stuff just fine, but it is accumulating tartar faster than her other teeth - even with brushing. She doesn't mind if I brush it or poke at it though.

I know that slab fractures are one of the most common issues to have with that tooth, but its also one of the hardest teeth to pull because its so big. Its one of those things where, a lot of times, vets opt to remove the tooth before the fracture can get worse and cause issues, but then again sometimes you can leave it and it will never cause issues. I'm not sure what to do with her now. Obviously I'll have a vet look at it, but that might not be for a couple weeks and I'll probably get a few different opinions. Still, that freaks me out because the first thing my mind jumps to is "dental - dun dun duuuun!" and I know that Ava really doesn't tolerate anesthesia well

I know there's a few other people here who work at a vet and maybe you've seen this sorta thing more than I have. We've seen lots of dogs with slab fractures before, but then I was the receptionist and never really got to see the technical aspect of fixing it or extracting it, so I'm kinda lost. I'll try to see if I can get a picture of it before I leave for class today.