Pomeranian puppy teeth coming in — what to do

At six months your Pomeranian is right in the middle of the adult tooth transition — this is actually one of the most important windows for dental health, and it's great you're paying attention now. Dental disease in dogs is extremely common and genuinely serious; it's not just bad breath, it's a source of chronic pain that many owners don't spot until it's advanced. The most effective home care combines the right toothbrush and toothpaste with dental chews for dogs who won't tolerate brushing. To point you in the right direction: has your vet said anything specific about how the adult teeth are coming through, and is your pup letting you touch around their mouth at all?

That retained baby tooth is worth watching closely — when a puppy tooth doesn't fall out and the adult tooth erupts alongside it, the two teeth sit in a space meant for one. That crowds them together, traps food and plaque immediately, and can push the adult tooth out of its correct position. Your vet is right to flag it. If it hasn't come out in the next two to three weeks, go back and ask about extraction — it's a straightforward procedure and far less costly than correcting the dental problems it causes. Now, on the home care side: given that he'll tolerate face touching but not mouth handling yet, how old is he exactly, and has he finished his vaccinations? I want to make sure I suggest something that suits where he is developmentally.

Perfect — food motivation is your best asset here, and six months is genuinely the ideal time to start. For a Pomeranian at this stage, I'd go with the Virbac C.E.T. Finger Brush kit. It's a soft silicone sleeve that fits over your fingertip rather than a handle brush, which gives you much better control in a small mouth and feels far less threatening to a dog who's still getting used to being touched there. Pomeranians have quite small, crowded mouths, so a standard toothbrush is often too bulky to do the job properly at this age. You dip the finger brush in a dog-safe enzymatic toothpaste — Virbac also make a chicken-flavoured one that most dogs accept readily — and start by just touching the outside of the teeth for a few seconds, rewarding immediately. Within a week or two most food-motivated dogs are tolerating a full outer-surface brush. The enzymatic action in the paste keeps working after you stop brushing, which matters because you can't reach every surface. Start now, while his adult teeth are still fresh, and you're genuinely setting him up for a much healthier mouth long-term.

Yes, crowding is a real structural issue in toy breeds and Pomeranians are one of the more affected ones. They have the same number of teeth as a Labrador crammed into a much smaller jaw, which means plaque builds up in the tight gaps faster, and misaligned teeth collect debris in places a brush can't reach. It's one of the reasons small breeds tend to need professional dental cleans more regularly than large breeds — many vets recommend annually from around age two or three for a Pom. For now, the finger brush on the outer surfaces daily, combined with a dental chew two or three times a week once his adult teeth are fully settled in, is the right combination. Avoid very hard chews or antlers at this age — his adult teeth are new and the enamel is still maturing, so anything that doesn't flex slightly is too much pressure.

That's exactly the right move on both counts. Starting the finger brush now while he's young and food motivated will pay off for years — dogs who accept brushing as puppies almost always stay tolerant of it as adults. And getting that retained tooth reviewed sooner rather than later protects the adult tooth that's trying to come through properly. You're asking the right questions at the right time for him.