How Many Teeth Does a Dog Have?

It's a dog's age that determines how many teeth it has, since, for example, a puppy has no teeth at birth. It's from around the seventh or eighth week of life that its first teeth come in, known as "baby teeth."

Once it's developed all its teeth, a puppy will have a set of between twenty-eight and thirty-two baby teeth, depending on the breed. These aren't the teeth it'll keep for the rest of its life, since they only last a few months.

Around six or seven months old, puppies replace their baby teeth with their permanent ones. Much bigger and stronger, these are teeth it can use to eat practically anything, including hard bones. An adult dog, or a puppy that's already replaced its baby teeth with permanent ones, has a total of forty-two teeth in its mouth: twenty on the top and twenty-two on the bottom.

The period when baby teeth fall out, pushed by the permanent teeth coming in, is called the teething period — a time when your dog will feel pain in its gums and will probably want to chew on absolutely everything to soothe that discomfort.

It's important to leave chew toys available, since they'll help a lot in soothing the pain. It's also highly recommended to start getting your dog used to having its teeth cleaned with a finger brush, since once it has its permanent teeth, you'll need to clean them regularly, and dogs are generally a bit reluctant to have their teeth handled.

A dog's teeth are designed for eating meat — this is a fully carnivorous set of teeth. The canines are used to grip prey, the incisors to cut or grip alongside the canines. Dogs' molars and premolars are very sharp, also known as carnassial teeth, since they can cut through even the hardest bone.

Dogs can suffer from the same mouth and teeth conditions as humans — tartar, gingivitis, cavities, infections... which is why proper dental hygiene is so important.