Dental disease in chinchillas in the UK

Dental abnormalities are common in chinchillas, although knowledge of the lesions responsible for the clinical signs is incomplete. Animals bred in the UK were examined to gain further knowledge of dental disease in this chinchilla population. Dental abnormalities, particularly those related to tooth elongation, were detected on careful external examination of 35 per cent of apparently healthy chinchillas. Incisor abnormalities were seen on clinical examination in 55 per cent of chinchillas presented because of clinical illness. In all but one case, this occurred secondarily to crown elongation of the cheek teeth or to the absence of opposing teeth, rather than being a primary skeletal problem. Clinical signs commonly attributed to malocclusion, such as ventral mandibular swelling, weight loss, dysphagia, altered chewing pattern and changed food preferences, were not specific to malocclusion, being seen associated with coronal spike formation, root elongation and advanced periodontal lesions. Caries and resorptive lesions rarely caused clinical signs in this population, but were identified during 37 per cent of postmortem examinations. Congenital absence of teeth, skeletal malocclusion and pathological loss of teeth all resulted in significant clinical signs, but were rare. It is concluded that provision of a diet with physical properties more closely matching that of wild chinchillas should improve the dental health of captive animals.