Dog Jaw: Know About Your Pet's Locked Jaw, and How to Deal with Same!

A dog's jaw is incredibly strong and can easily rip through flesh and even break bones.

The portion of a dog's face that consists of the nose, jaw, and mouth is known as the snout. It is the weak point of most animals.

If you look closely at the jaws of a dog, you will notice that they are a bit crooked. When the lower jaw of a dog is too large compared to the upper jaw, the lower mandible corresponds to the front of the upper mandible, or teeth.

Often, owners find their pet dog suffering from excessive pain in its jaw.

When they consult with the veterinary doctor, they find out that the pain is arising from the locked jaw of the dog. A locked jaw is caused when a dog opens its mouth widely and dislocates its jaw joints, which are also known as the temporomandibular joints.

Dogs may face many other dental problems besides jaw fractures. Dogs may suffer from a dental condition called idiopathic osteomyelitis, also known as osteonecrosis. This dental problem occurs when there are diseased teeth in the dog's mouth.

This problem cannot be cured by antibiotics or other painkillers. If your dog suffers from it, you'll have to take it to the vet to get oral and dental surgery.

After jaw surgery, you'll have to feed your dog wet kibble or any other food that is easy to eat. Your dog must abstain from chewing on toys. If you don't fix your dog's broken jaw, it may become extremely painful and fatal to the dog.

If you like reading about the facts on a dog's jaw and are curious to know more about the fun facts of like animals, then do check out our other facts articles on husky facts, and fox paw print here on Kidadl.

What is a dog jaw?

As you may know, the jaws of dogs are extremely strong and are the strongest part of the dog's body. The Kangal dog has the strongest jaw.

But with strength comes the potential for a number of diseases. Dogs can easily be diagnosed with an overshot and undershot jaw, osteomyelitis of the jaw, and jaw fractures. When such problems arise, it is important to provide them with surgical, dental, and oral treatment by a veterinarian as soon as possible.

If we look inside the mouth of a dog, we see that its mandible has three types of joints. The first two are the temporo-mandibular joints, and the other one is the symphyseal joint.

The last joint is often neglected in the study of veterinarians.

Only the temporo-mandibular one is considered, just because of its remarkable feature and because the temporo-mandibular is affected the most when broken. Other than these joints, there are three muscles, namely temporal, medial, and lateral pterygoid, and masseter muscles that determine and help with the lower jaw and upper jaw movements and the bite force.

How to know if my dog dislocated his jaw?

Like every other mammal, dogs also have upper and lower jaws, and they also have different names for them. Usually, there are four premolars.

The two upper ones are known as the maxilla teeth, whereas the lower one is known as the mandibular tooth. There are 22 teeth in the mandible and 20 teeth in the upper jaw, also called the maxilla.

In total, a dog has 42 teeth compared to human premolars, which have ten teeth less than a dog, which makes 32 teeth in total.

The temporo-mandibular joint alignment causes the dislocation of the jaw.

If you discover that your pet dog's mouth cannot close completely and is in pain, this indicates that your pet's jaw has dislocated. You can be 100% sure if you find swelling in some parts of your pet's mouth and when you start to hear sounds like 'click' when your pet is eating something.

This implies that your pet dog is suffering from TMJ (temporo-mandibular joints) luxation in the lower jaw and is in need of treatment and oral surgery.

What happens when a dog breaks a jaw?

When your pet dog breaks its jaw, the first thing you have to do is take him for treatment to the veterinary clinic. The veterinary doctor will perform dental and oral surgery immediately.

The jaw needs to be treated as soon as possible because the maxillary becomes an open fracture. If it is not treated, there is a risk of infection, which can become the cause of serious dental as well as body illness.

It is normal for an animal to have broken jaws. It can happen when your dog fights with another animal, or due to vehicle trauma or an accident.

Other than physical trauma, the animal can get periodontal disease. The broken jaw, because of periodontal disease, can be found in the lower canine often because these areas around the canine suffer from bone loss and need healing. When the canine suffers from bone loss, even small situations and trauma like jumping can result in a broken jaw straightaway.

Can a dog's fractured jaw heal on its own?

When the veterinary treatment is successful, the vet provides detailed instructions regarding what to do and what not to do so that the healing of the patient can make timely progress.

The detailed instruction contains how food should be given to the patient.

It is instructed by the vet to give the patient only soft food and nothing more, as soft food does not affect the healing process of the patient, and the movement of the teeth will be less forceful.

Sometimes, when the fracture is major, the patient is provided with a feeding tube and is instructed only to give liquid food to heal slowly and with care.

During this period, the care of the patient is considered the number one priority of the owner.

Often, people advise dog owners when their pet fractures their jaw that it will heal on its own and that it is not a big deal. But it is not true.

A regular minor fracture can heal on its own, but it is not necessary for it to heal correctly and become new and healthy. If you do not take dental advice from your dog's vet, you will never know whether it is a minor fracture or a major one.

You must not believe this myth. You must take your dog to the vet for treatment after any trauma or accident, as it is essential for the health and overall well-being of your dog.

Did You Know...

Although a dog can chatter when he gets excited or anxious, it's not always the case. If the chatter is continuous for a long time, then you should get serious because it can be due to a locked jaw, or it can also be because of a neurological condition.

Lockjaw can happen when your dog dislocates its jaw. The jaw can get dislocated for multiple reasons.

It can be because of TMJ luxation, nerve paralysis, or maybe because of tetanus and ear diseases. Lockjaw is the most common problem with dogs that are quite energetic and with those dogs that are naughty and cause problems every other day.

There are also many types of lockjaw that only a vet can tell after taking an oral diagnosis.

Other tests, like blood tests, CT scans, as well as MRIs, can also be performed after looking at the condition of the jaw. If it is a minor one, it can be healed with some medicine and antibiotics, but if it is a major one, oral surgery is performed, followed by other blood and MRI tests.

A locked jaw can easily be recognized as your pet starts to show some symptoms that can indicate that it is in some discomfort that needs immediate healing. Some of the most common symptoms that indicate lockjaw problems are excess pain and swelling.

These two are always there with some other symptoms like fever, salvation, loss of appetite, jawbone shift, weight loss, and abnormal facial expressions.

Whenever you notice that your dog cannot open its mouth or is having difficulty closing its jaws, it can lead to lockjaw. The pain is easily recognized when your dog is chewing slowly or with many difficulties.

This problem is seen suddenly and not slowly over time.

When all these symptoms are present, make an appointment with your vet before it can lead to a much more serious issue than this.

Lockjaw should be medically treated so that the jaw can maintain normal occlusion and the maxillary and mandibular can heal in their rightful place and not here and there. Their healing at the rightful place is important as if they do not heal correctly, they can later lead to a bigger problem..

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