Introduction

Abscesses of teeth naturally involve the tissues of the alveolus in which the root of the tooth is implanted and are therefore properly termed dento-alveolar abscesses. The portal of entry of the micro-organisms that are the exciting cause is usually the tooth pulp that has been exposed by some process such as dental caries, wear or fracture of the tooth crown. The alternative route by which infection reaches the root and its surrounding tissues is the gingival margin as, for example, a complication of periodontal disease.

Examples of osteomyelitis will be included in this account because this condition often begins as an abscess. A dento-alveolar abscess is, in general, a localization of an infection; whereas osteomyelitis is a more severe suppurative infection which tends to spread within the bone. The essential difference is that in osteomyelitis there is death of bone on a macroscopic scale, producing a sequestrum of dead bone.

A condition known as lumpy jaw will also be dealt with because it can be regarded as a complex abscess which usually involves the teeth and indeed the teeth probably in most cases provide the portal of entry for the causative organisms.

Statistics showing the prevalence of tooth abscesses and other dental disorders, in both captive and wild animals, are rare, but some idea of the prevalence in captive animals is provided in the report by Kazimiroff (1938) on examples of dental disease encountered during one year at the New York Zoological Park. There were dento-alveolar abscesses in a wolf and a kangaroo, both being complications of fractures of incisors, and in a patas monkey as a complication of a fracture of a canine tooth.