Overgrown front top teeth: to clip or not to clip?

Question
we have a female rabbit that is kept indoors. we clip her bottom two teeth, but her front top tooth is long and curving inward. when she opens her mouth the top tooth hits her bottom jaw. can we clip this like her other teeth or does she need to see a vet?

Answer
Dear Kathy,

Unless you have a special tool such as a veterinary bone rongeur, it is *not* wise to clip either the bottom or the top teeth. They should be *filed* or cut with a Dremel-type tool.  Clipping often causes microfractures in the tooth that can travel below the gumline and invite serious bacterial infections that can go into the bone and be extremely difficult to cure.

It would be best to get her to a good rabbit vet to have all the incisors trimmed without clipping, and for this you'll need someone experienced and who knows NOT to clip the teeth (unless they have the proper cutting tool that applies pressure evenly so as not to crack the teeth).  You can find a vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Please also read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

In the case of a severe incisor malocclusion like what your bunny has, the best long-term solution is often to simply *remove* the teeth so they will not cause any further problems.  You'll have to cut her fresh food into bite-sized chunks (we use a grater for carrots and cut leafy greens into long, thin strips for our tooth-needs bunnies), but she should be able to handle pellets and hay just fine, even without incisors.

For information on healthy diet, please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

and if she is not spayed, be sure to read this:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

since unspayed, unbred female rabbits have a very high risk of uterine cancer.

I hope this helps.

Dana