At the Bondi referral hospital SASH, Alana
is arriving with seven month old Kelly.
We noticed that she had some little holes in the top of her mouth,
there was a bit of blood around them.
So I really have no clue what's going on or what she's done.
But it looks like it might be something to worry about.
We're going to fix you're mouth.
Yeah?
Make it all better.
Kellys definitely my little baby.
She's spoiled beyond belief,
so I want to make sure that there's nothing wrong with her.
So what's happening?
She likes to chew lots of things.
She's always chewing sticks and rocks and that.
But I'm not sure
if she's punctured something
or got like a hole from chewing on something.
I'm just going to have a look in her mouth
and see if we can work out exactly
what's causing this problem.
Oh it doesn't look good.
It's only when I open up her mouth
that I notice that her canine teeth are sitting far back
and they're actually digging their way up into her palate.
And that's not normal at all.
Those bottom canine teeth, they're actually not sitting
where they should be.
And what they're doing
is they're burrowing up into her palate and they're
making those little ulcers.
And if we don't do anything about it,
those canine teeth will just progressively burrow
through her palate.
And eventually in the worst case scenario,
they can almost make holes right up into her nasal cavity.
That's pretty bad.
Yeah, it's pretty serious if we get to that stage.
The best thing we can
do is try and treat her now
so that it's not going to progress
and end up with a serious surgical problem.
If we don't treat it, it's going to cause her lifelong
pain, discomfort, difficulty eating.
It's something we really need to treat straight away.
It's okay.
She's just a little baby.
So I want to make sure we can do whatever we can to help her.
You're the best.
Hi this is Kelly, Hi Kelly.
and Alana
Lisa is hoping specialist veterinary dentist Nadine Feaney
can find a solution to help the Staffie.
It seems like her lower canines are not occluding
in the way that they should.
They're just not lining up.
But I'd love your opinion on what we can do.
Let's have a look inside,
let's open up that little mouth
Wow, you see the dents right in the roof of her mouth?
That certainly does not look right at all.
Wow, so this is a pretty nasty problem.
You're absolutely right Lisa.
The first thing I could see was that her two lower canines, her
big fang teeth,
instead of sitting in this sort of angle,
they're actually sitting a little too upright.
They're standing up.
And what that means is when Kelly closes her mouth,
those two fang teeth are now poking up into the roof of her mouth.
And they're causing dents.
They're causing indentations or trauma to the roof of her mouth.
Is there something we can do to to help her?
She's very lucky,
I think we can probably put on some doggy braces.
Doggy braces, sure.
I did not think that they were going to say that
she needed braces.
I've never, ever heard of a dog with braces.
So is it like human braces?
They're a little bit similar
to what people can have sometimes on their teeth.
We're going to move her upper canines back.
Then, once there's a bit
more room, we'll try and shift
the problematic lower canines out of the way.
So that she's not having that painful problem anymore.
We're not trying to make her win a beauty contest.
We just want her to be comfortable.
Yeah, I don't want her to be in pain so.
Oh that's good.
She's the most loved member of our family, so
anything that she needs, I will do for her.
Kelly will be a pioneer and one of the first dogs ever
to have braces fitted at SASH.
Kelly's provided us the perfect case for it,
and the beauty of this procedure is that it's completely noninvasive.
As horrible as Kelly's problem is, the exciting thing is
we can put braces on her
to fix this.
Hey you're going to get braces on very soon.
Stage one of Kelly's orthodontic treatment will take place
later this afternoon.
For now, it's time for Alana to say her goodbyes.
We'll see you soon.
It's pretty amazing that we can do this for her.
I'm sure some people are going to think
I've lost my mind putting braces on my dog,
and they might sort of think I'm just doing it
so they look pretty.
But we're going to do this
so she isn't in any pain anymore.
Alright sweetheart your going to go to sleep.
At SASH 7 month old Kelly is about to undergo
the first of a series of complex
procedures to fix her misaligned teeth.
If we were to leave
Kelly's mouth as it is, it's only going to get worse.
And what will happen is those two lower canines,
those two lower fangs
are just going to keep digging deeper and deeper and deeper
into the roof of her mouth.
Wow, It's quite the hole.
What we're looking at here is the trauma that's happening
in Kelly's mouth.
So these two dents in the roof
of her mouth are caused by the lower canines.
Every time she closes her mouth,
they poke straight into the roof of her mouth.
So that's really uncomfortable.
So our aim is to eventually be able to move these two canines outward
so that they're sitting on
the side of her jaw rather than inside the roof her mouth.
The first step today is applying braces.
We're going to cement on some metal buttons onto her teeth.
It's a very delicate procedure.
And where they go is very, very important.
We just need to let that set for a minute.
The buttons will hold elastics
that will start moving the problem teeth to their correct position.
We have to be very,
very careful with how much tension we apply to these teeth.
One, two, three, four....
If we put too much tension, if we try and move
that tooth to, too quickly, it could end up killing it.
And that's not what we want.
That could lead to a whole host of problems.
So we have to take our time, we have to measure everything.
And we have to make sure what we're doing is spot on.
There we go, perfect.
Stage one of this long and complicated process is now over.
The buttons and the chains look great.
They, they don't feel like they're going to come off.
But she is a puppy and we have to be so careful with her.
So she's not allowed to chew on anything
because they can come off quite easily.
Oh it's alright.
Kelly will sleep off her sedation
and hopefully be able to go home with her owner Alana, later today.
Oh, my goodness.
So much for sedation.
I cannot believe that my dog has braces.
I think it is so funny.
But hopefully it really, really helps her,
so, I'm pretty excited.
Hello, hello, hello, you look beautiful.
Kelly's next visit will be in four weeks.
Ooh thank you for that,
that was lovely.
I really do hope that we start seeing that upper canine
tooth, that upper fang tooth to start to move back
gradually.
And to do so in a slow and steady fashion,
and that we don't end up with any complications from it by good luck.
Bye good luck.
Today is a huge milestone for courageous Kelly.
You're a good girl.
After weeks of intense treatment at SASH, the Staffie pup is back
for what's hopefully her final procedure.
We're going to be removing her orthodontic appliance today.
And hopefully that will be it,
we'll be done.
Good girl.
The first step is removing Kelly's plate.
We're going to score
the appliance itself and then we're actually going
to crack it off bit by bit.
We do that very carefully because we don't want to
hurt the teeth underneath it.
Today's the big day.
Kelly is having her plate removed.
So excited to see how it turns out.
Oh there we go, whole lot just came off.
There you go, Kelly.
Fantastic, so I'll just get the last bits and pieces off.
We are going to just make sure that everything's fitting together
okay.
There we go.
I'm always nervous at this part of the procedure
because it's really the
moment of truth to see if all the work that we've done
has actually been successful.
So fingers crossed our teeth fit together properly.
Oh beautiful.
So we can see immediately
that now her lower canines are on the outside of her upper canines,
which they weren't before.
Previously, they were just
sitting right in there, inside her palette.
Inside the roof of her mouth,
and they were causing all manner of trauma.
So that's no longer the case.
The braces, the plate, everything has done
it's work.
Our lower
canines are now in completely the right spot.
So they're not going to poke through the roof of her mouth.
But most importantly, she'll be very, very comfortable.
Aren't you the prettiest girl now?
So pretty, lovely teeth that don't hurt.
Kelly, you're going home sweetheart.
You're going home,
c'mon somebodys waiting for you, I know.
Later that afternoon Kelly has slept off her sedation
and is ready to be reunited with her devoted owner Alana.
I can't wait for Alana to see Kelly's new smile.
They have been through weeks and weeks of procedures,
and her devotion and dedication to her dog is quite remarkable.
I just can't wait for her
to see her little girl at the end of the day.
She is going to be so excited.
Go, go, go, go, go.
Hello Bubba, hello, hello.
Yes, yes, hello princess.
Kelly, kelly.
Come on show mum you're teeth.
Show me.
Oh, look how pretty they are.
Got a brand new smile.
Thank you so much.
My pleasure.
It's really exciting to have been involved with Kelly's treatment.
She's now gone from a dog that had a painful mouth to one
that's got a beautiful, normal, functioning mouth,
and she'll go on and lead a happy, healthy life.
Thank you.
Come on Bubba.
See you Kelly.
She thinks you're teeth are beautiful.
Come on, let's go.
It was definitely worth getting the puppy braces for Kelly.
We can be happy knowing that she's got a long, happy,
healthy life ahead of her.
With plenty of love from all of us.