Do Puppies Lose Teeth? A Timeline for Normal Teething and When a Tooth Isn't Coming Out Right
Yes. Puppies are born without visible teeth, grow a full set of 28 deciduous ("baby") teeth by about six to eight weeks of age, and then shed every one of them as 42 permanent teeth push through, usually finishing by six to seven months. Most of this happens without an owner ever finding a tooth, since puppies typically swallow them along with food. The part worth watching for isn't the shedding itself — it's the baby tooth that doesn't leave when it should.
The Mouth-Development Timeline
A puppy's mouth changes in two distinct waves, and knowing where your dog sits on this timeline is what makes a stray tooth on the floor, a spot of blood on a toy, or a tooth that "hasn't fallen out yet" easy to interpret correctly.
Birth to about 2 weeks: No visible teeth. Puppies nurse and don't need them yet.
About 3 to 6 weeks: Deciduous incisors, canines, and premolars erupt in sequence — incisors and canines first, premolars shortly after. Dogs never grow deciduous molars. By 6 to 8 weeks, all 28 baby teeth are typically in place.
About 12 to 16 weeks (3 to 4 months): The first permanent teeth — usually the incisors — begin pushing up, and the corresponding baby teeth start loosening and falling out as their roots resorb. This is the stage most owners mean when they say a puppy is "teething," and it's also when mouthy chewing behavior tends to peak.
About 4 to 6 months: Permanent premolars erupt, followed by the canines and molars. Some overlap between stages is normal — a puppy can be cutting adult incisors while still finishing deciduous premolars.
By about 6 to 7 months: Most dogs have all 42 permanent teeth in place, and no deciduous teeth should remain. Small and toy breeds sometimes finish slightly later than large breeds, and individual variation of a few weeks in either direction is common.
Two things are true at every stage of this timeline: mild, brief spotting of blood on a chew toy during active shedding is normal, and any baby tooth still present once its adult replacement has visibly erupted next to it is not something to wait out.
The "Not Normal" Rail: What Should Not Be Happening
Run this alongside the timeline above. If your puppy's mouth shows any of the following, the situation has moved from teething into something that needs a veterinary exam rather than home observation.
A retained (persistent) deciduous tooth. A baby tooth is considered retained the moment the permanent tooth erupts beside or through it — the adult tooth doesn't need to be fully in for this to count. This is most common in toy and small-breed dogs and most often affects the canine teeth, though it can occur anywhere in the mouth. Two roots occupying space meant for one root causes crowding, traps food and plaque between the teeth, and can push the erupting adult tooth into a misaligned position (malocclusion) that changes the whole bite. A retained tooth does not reliably resolve on its own once the adult tooth is already up next to it.
Ongoing or heavy bleeding, rather than a faint spot. Some minor staining during normal shedding is expected. Bleeding that continues, recurs, or comes with obvious mouth pain is not.
Reluctance to eat, chew, or pick up toys; pawing at the face; or drooling more than usual. These can point to a fractured tooth, exposed pulp, or an inflamed/infected tooth root rather than ordinary teething discomfort.
A discolored tooth — pink, purple, gray, or dull. Discoloration signals bleeding inside the tooth from trauma, and the large majority of intrinsically stained teeth are no longer vital, meaning the nerve has died and the tooth needs professional evaluation even if it isn't causing obvious pain right now.
A visibly broken or chipped tooth, especially with a pink or dark spot at the fracture. Puppies fracture teeth on rocks, cage bars, hard toys, bones, antlers, and rough play. A fracture that exposes the pulp will not heal on its own and needs veterinary assessment regardless of how the puppy is acting, because pain from a dead or dying tooth can go quiet for months before flaring again.
A visible bump, swelling, or draining tract along the gum or under the eye. This can indicate an abscess forming around a compromised tooth root and is not a wait-and-see finding.
None of these findings can be diagnosed by looking in the mouth at home. A veterinarian confirms what's happening through an oral exam and, when a tooth's health is in question, dental radiographs — the same standard used for adult dental disease.
Why Retained Teeth Don't Just Fall Out
Normal shedding depends on specialized cells resorbing, or dissolving, the root of the baby tooth as the permanent tooth pushes up beneath it. Once enough root is gone, the crown loosens and comes out on its own. A retained tooth usually means that resorption process didn't keep pace — the root is still substantially intact even though the adult tooth has already erupted alongside it. Because the retained tooth's root remains anchored, waiting longer rarely helps and can allow more crowding and plaque accumulation in the meantime.
This is also why "pulling it out" at home is not an appropriate response. Removing a retained deciduous tooth is a surgical extraction performed under general anesthesia by a veterinarian, in part because the root is often still firmly seated and because the procedure needs to avoid damaging the permanent tooth developing right beside it. Veterinary dental sources are specific that these extractions should happen as soon as the retained tooth is identified rather than being deferred to a puppy's spay or neuter date, since delaying allows more time for misalignment and periodontal problems to develop.
Safe Chewing During the Teething Window
Chewing is a normal response to teething discomfort and a way puppies explore their environment, not a behavior problem to eliminate. The goal during this window is choosing objects that relieve gum pressure without risking a fracture to teeth that are already undergoing structural change.
Veterinary dentists generally advise against anything a thumbnail can't dent. A simple check applies before handing a puppy any chew: press a thumbnail into the surface, and if it doesn't leave an indentation, the object is hard enough to fracture a tooth. Items commonly flagged as too hard include bones of any kind (raw or cooked), antlers, hooves, and rigid nylon toys. A soft, pliable texture that gives slightly under bite pressure, sometimes chilled to soothe inflamed gums, is the safer general category.
For products marketed specifically to reduce plaque or tartar, the only independent marker of tested effectiveness is the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) Seal of Acceptance, awarded after a product demonstrates at least a 20% reduction in plaque or tartar accumulation in controlled trials. The VOHC maintains a current, publicly searchable list of accepted dog and cat products by category — dental diets, chews, water additives, gels, and toothbrushes — and that list is the reference to check rather than marketing language on a package. A VOHC seal on a chew or treat says something about plaque control; it does not certify that a product is soft enough or safe for a teething puppy's developing mouth, so the hardness check above still applies separately.
Supervision matters as much as product choice. No chew toy is completely risk-free, and puppies should be watched while chewing rather than left unattended with any object, since even acceptable chews can pose a choking or blockage risk if pieces break off.
When to Call the Veterinarian
A routine puppy wellness visit is the right setting to have a veterinarian check tooth eruption progress, since exams around 6 to 8 weeks and again around 4 months typically fall right at the points where retained teeth become identifiable. Outside of scheduled visits, contact your veterinarian sooner — rather than waiting for the next appointment — if you notice a baby tooth still present alongside an erupted adult tooth, a fractured or discolored tooth, persistent bleeding, facial swelling, or a puppy reluctant to eat or chew. None of these require an emergency clinic in most cases, but they do require an exam rather than home monitoring, since accurate assessment of a puppy's mouth depends on hands-on evaluation and, often, imaging that can't be done by looking from across the room.
If your veterinarian recommends monitoring general wellness or nutrition support alongside dental development, HERO Veterinary's dog collection can be a starting point for browsing — but a puppy's tooth eruption and any suspected retained or damaged tooth should be assessed by your veterinarian first, since product selection doesn't substitute for that exam.