Despite a tooth’s inert appearance, your pet’s permanent (adult) teeth continue to change and mature throughout their lifetime. During adolescence, your pet’s permanent teeth develop from buds within the jaws. Over the first six to seven months of your pet’s life, their baby teeth fall out and are replaced by erupting permanent teeth.

What Happens After Adult Teeth Erupt in Pets?

Even as your pet’s teeth finish erupting into place, they are far from done maturing. The first major change that occurs is the closure of the tip of the root known. This process allows the strengthening and stabilization of the tooth into place while still maintaining the blood and nerve supply to the tooth.

Over the following years of life, additional supporting layers of secondary dentin form within the pulp chamber of each tooth. This layering causes an internal thickening of the walls of the tooth and a reduction in the width of the pulp canal. This canal reduction should be occurring at a similar rate across all live and healthy teeth in your pet’s mouth. Damage or disease of a tooth’s pulp tissues can often be determined with dental X-rays and can be strong evidence of each tooth’s health.

Consult a Veterinary Dentist in Houston

We would love to examine and discuss the health of your pet’s mouth and teeth. Please give us a call to schedule an appointment!

Images used under creative commons license – commercial use (4/30/2025). Photo by Bri Tucker on Unsplash