[longrema]

Depending on whether the tooth broke or avulsed, the chances of saving it can actually be pretty good. It's just a matter of getting to it in a hurry.

Avulsions probably are better off just staying out, but then it usually also involves some broken bone as well (in a young healthy dog).

A broken tooth in a relatively young dog can easily be saved with a root canal .. and in a lot of cases, it is just about the same expense, but less trauma, as an extraction. It should, however, be done by somebody who has experience in doing root canals, or the whole mess will bite you into the behind later on.

Extraction of a canine tooth in a young dog.. if the vet doesn't have a good background in veterinary dentistry (ie: mostly cleans teeth), can turn in to a nightmare as well. It's a huge tooth, and leaves a huge hole. If they don't have dental rad capacity... you may end up with an abscessed retained root tip in a few years.

Only reason I am throwing this out there: one of our GP doctors decided quite a few years ago to get board certified for veterinary dentistry. While getting prepped for that, he had to have worked on a variety of cases under the supervision of an already board cert. dentist. We had a pretty busy practice of complicated dental cases.. a huge amount of them were things he got to fixed after some other (well meaning?) DVM effed it up a while back.