Quick answer: Antlers, hooves, bones and hard nylon chews can fracture a dog’s tooth, most often the large upper cheek tooth used for shearing. Rawhide and bone fragments can lodge in the throat or intestine. Sticks can spear the mouth. If a chew does not flex or dent under your thumbnail, it is too hard.

Chewing is normal, useful behaviour. It settles a restless dog, occupies a puppy during teething and gives an anxious pet something to do. The problem is not chewing itself. The problem is what we hand them to chew on, because the pet supply aisle sells plenty of things that are harder than the teeth meant to break them down. At our Surrey clinic on 160 Street, chew related injuries are one of the more preventable reasons a dog ends up needing dental treatment.

Why a hard chew breaks a tooth

Dogs do not grind side to side the way we do. They shear. The large upper fourth premolar and the lower first molar, together called the carnassial teeth, pass each other like scissor blades and are built to slice through tissue. When a dog gets a very hard object between those teeth and bites down with full jaw force, something has to give. If the object does not give, the tooth does.

The classic result is a slab fracture: a flat piece shears off the outer surface of the upper carnassial, often exposing the sensitive layer underneath. Owners are frequently surprised, because they expected a broken tooth to be obvious. It usually is not. There may be no yelp, no blood and no dropped chew. The dog carries on and the fracture is found weeks or months later during a routine exam.

Materials that come up again and again are deer and elk antlers, hooves, weight bearing marrow bones, dried bone segments and the very rigid nylon chews. This is not about which brand is better or worse. It is about physics. Any object that cannot deform under a molar can transfer that force straight back into the tooth.

How hard is too hard: three tests you can do at the till

You do not need to guess. Three quick checks cover most of what is on the shelf.

The thumbnail test

Press your thumbnail firmly into the surface. If you can leave a small dent or mark, the material has some give. If your nail slides off a glassy surface with no impression at all, that object is harder than enamel is comfortable with.

The kneecap test

Rap the chew smartly against your own kneecap. If you wince, your dog’s tooth would too. It sounds unscientific, but it is a fair proxy for the sudden impact load a molar takes.

The flex test

Try to bend it. A chew that flexes, compresses or slowly wears away into soft shreds is behaving the way a chew should. A chew that snaps into rigid shards is a different category of object entirely.

A fourth question is worth adding: what happens to this chew as it gets smaller? Something safe at full size can become a swallowable lump within twenty minutes of enthusiastic work.

Rawhide, bones and the swallowing problem

Rawhide sits in a different risk category from antlers. It is usually soft enough that fractures are less of a concern, but it softens and swells as it is chewed. A determined dog can work a corner loose, soften it into a slippery strip and swallow a piece whole rather than break it down. That strip does not always pass. It can catch at the back of the throat, in the esophagus, or further along the intestinal tract.

Cooked bones bring their own problem. Cooking changes the structure of bone so that it splinters into sharp fragments instead of crumbling. Those fragments can scratch the mouth and throat, pack into the colon as a hard, dry mass, or in the worst cases perforate tissue. Raw bones are not automatically safe either, because a marrow bone can be gnawed into a ring that slips over the lower jaw behind the canine teeth and becomes stuck.

Signs that a swallowed piece is causing trouble include repeated retching, drooling, refusing food, straining without producing stool, vomiting that keeps coming back, a hunched posture or a sore, tense abdomen. These are reasons to phone us rather than wait and watch overnight. Please do not try to pull a lodged object out at home, and never give a human medication or attempt to make your dog vomit. Both can make the situation considerably worse. Some obstructions can be managed medically, some need imaging first, and some need soft tissue surgery to resolve.

Sticks are not a free toy

Sticks feel like the most natural thing in the world to throw, and they are free, which is part of the appeal on a walk along the trails and off-leash areas around Surrey. They are also one of the more underrated causes of mouth injury we see.

The risk is not chewing so much as running. A dog chasing a thrown stick may catch it end on, or the stick may plant in the ground and the dog runs onto it. The point can penetrate the tongue, the soft palate, the back of the throat or the tissues of the neck. These wounds can look small and close over quickly on the surface while a splinter stays behind, which sometimes leads to a swelling or a draining tract weeks later.

Splinters wedged sideways across the roof of the mouth are the other common finding. A dog with one of these paws at its face, gags, drools or suddenly refuses to eat. If your dog is a committed stick chewer, swapping in a proper fetch toy for throwing is a small change that removes most of this risk.

What a fractured tooth actually means for your pet

A chipped tip that has not exposed the inner pulp may only need monitoring. A fracture that opens the pulp is different. The pulp holds the nerve and blood supply, so the tooth is both painful and open to bacteria from the mouth. Over time that can lead to infection at the root tip, sometimes showing up as a firm swelling under the eye on the affected side.

Dogs are remarkably good at hiding dental pain. They keep eating, because the alternative is not eating. What owners tend to notice instead is subtler: chewing on one side, dropping kibble, less interest in toys, or a dog who has quietly become less playful and is written off as simply getting older.

What an exam and imaging assess

An awake exam tells us a certain amount. We can see a fracture line, discolouration, a swollen gum margin or tartar hiding a defect. What an awake exam cannot show is what is going on below the gumline, and that is where most of the answer lives.

That is why dental X-rays matter for a broken tooth. Imaging lets us assess the root, the bone around it and whether there is evidence of infection, then decide whether the tooth can be kept or is better removed. A full oral assessment and any treatment happen with the pet asleep, with anesthesia and patient monitoring tailored to that individual, so the mouth can be examined properly, probed and charted without distress. You can read more about how our team approaches veterinary dentistry before your visit.

Chewing habits that hold up

Choose chews that wear down gradually rather than shatter. Supervise, especially for the first few sessions with anything new. Take away any piece small enough to swallow whole. Rotate chews so a bored dog is not grinding away at the same object for an hour. Match the size of the chew to the size of the dog, and remember that a strong, motivated chewer needs closer watching than a gentle one.

Home dental care is the other half of this. A dog whose mouth is handled regularly is far easier to check, and you are far more likely to spot a chip early. Our step by step guide to brushing your dog’s teeth walks through building that habit without a fight. Cats chew too, usually on things they should not, and the same handling logic applies in brushing your cat’s teeth. If a dental procedure does become necessary, going home with medication is part of recovery, and our guide to giving your dog a pill makes that week easier on both of you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are antlers safe for dogs?

Antlers are among the hardest chews sold, which is exactly the concern. They do not flex or wear down quickly, so the force of a strong bite goes back into the tooth. Slab fractures of the upper cheek teeth are the injury associated with this type of very rigid chew. Softer chews that dent under a thumbnail are the safer category.

My dog broke a tooth but is eating normally. Does it still need looking at?

Yes, please have it examined. Dogs continue eating through significant dental pain, so normal appetite does not rule out a problem. What matters is whether the fracture has exposed the pulp, and that is assessed with an oral exam and imaging rather than by watching behaviour at the food bowl.

Is rawhide bad for dogs?

The main issue with rawhide is not hardness, it is swallowing. Rawhide softens as it is chewed, and a dog can work a piece loose and swallow it whole instead of breaking it down. That piece may pass, or it may lodge in the throat or intestine. If you offer it, supervise closely and remove any piece small enough to be gulped.

What should I do if my dog swallows a piece of bone or rawhide?

Call us during opening hours and describe what was swallowed, how big it was and when. Do not try to make your dog vomit and do not give any human medication. Watch for repeated retching, drooling, refusing food, ongoing vomiting, straining, lethargy or a tense abdomen, and let us know if any of these appear.

Why are sticks a problem if dogs have chewed them forever?

Chewing a stick quietly on the grass is a lower risk than catching a thrown one at speed. Penetrating injuries to the tongue, soft palate and throat happen when a dog runs onto a stick or catches it end on. Splinters can also wedge across the roof of the mouth. A purpose made fetch toy removes most of that risk.

How do I know if a chew is the right hardness?

Use three checks. Press a thumbnail into it and look for a dent. Tap it against your kneecap and see if it hurts. Try to bend it and see whether it flexes or snaps into shards. A chew that dents, flexes and wears down slowly into soft material is doing its job without putting a tooth at risk.