Dog teeth and age. Can you really tell the age?

I had my dogs at the vets and the one new tech who had never seen my dogs before looked at my one and could NOT believe her age. I have owned the dog for 8 years and adopted it at 7 so shes a good 15 years old... and she was like OMG if I had not known any better I would have sworn she was only around 4 or 5.





I know that different teeth appear at certian ages and erosions can give you some clue as how much older a dog is, but my question is...





Do teeth really tell the tale of age or ?

Dog teeth and age. Can you really tell the age?
Yes and no.... It is by no means an exact science but you can make a pretty good estimate from looking at a dogs teeth.





I spent 3 years working at a shelter and had to guesstimate the age of many many dogs. We sometimes knew if we got it right or not by looking up microchip details or having the owner contact us.





Lots of things can affect the teeth, if they have been cleaned the dog will seem younger, if they have had a bad diet, flea burdens (chewing), escape artist (chewing) then it will look older. We had one 8 year old dalmation that the vets estimated as 2 years... it had beautiful clean, non-worn teeth! Pups under 6 months were easier to estimate because we were using the development of the teeth as a guide rather than the build up of tartar and wearing.





Check out the link below for an article on dog aging.
Reply:thats what the experts claim!
Reply:you can use teeth to determine the age very well while they are all still growing in, since certain teeth grow in at differnt times they can look and see if they have a certain tooth that is supposed to grow in at 1 year but does not yet have a tooth that is supposed to grow in around 1 year and 1 month lets say they you can tell shes between a year and a year and a month.... but once they have all their adult teeth it gets tricky and less reliable





once they are all grown in they look at teeth and decay or debri build up on the teeth so if you have a dog thats 17 years old and a tech looks ans says wow you would think shes only 4 or 5 thats a very good thing it means your dogs teeth have been kept in very good condition and havent got a lot of plaque or decay on them, do you brush your dogs teeth? that will keep them in good condition
Reply:i sometimes volunteer at the vets office and ive noticed that when someone has a question about age he will check their teeth so i guess it must be true. cheers to you keeping your dogs mouth healthy!
Reply:You can get a general idea from the ware and tear on teeth and the build up of tarter, the color etc. It%26#039;s an experience or trick of trade kind of knowledge. It%26#039;s not an exact science or anything after they have their permanent teeth. You can really only tell but the milestones when they%26#039;re puppy%26#039;s and kittens.
Reply:oh no, your dog probably just has good teeth for her age.


you can only tell the age by looking at the teeth with horses.


you should get a new vet
Reply:...you are a great person.....teeth can cause heart attacks in people......the vet tech might have been guessing ...the teeth are an indicator...but it sounds like you are ahead of the game with your diligence in brushing and teeth cleaning.....good work......
Reply:Teeth tell the range of age not the exact day/month/year



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