Does anyone have any good info sites on how to check chi's bites? I've tried to read thru some - i have my new little girl who the vet says has an overbite - but when i look at the sites, what it looks like is an underbite. As I check my other 2, it looks like they have underbites also. I've also read that they can grow out of some of the underbites?
yeah, i've looked some sites up - but they're sooo hard to understand sometimes :( This is what i found
A correct scissor bite is such that, side view, the top incisors just overlap, in front of the bottom ones, but the bottom canine fits neatly in front of the top one. if the incisors meet edge to edge, this is a 'level' mouth, not scissor. 'Set square to the jaws', it must be noted, means that the teeth are set at approx. 90° to the gums. It does NOT mean that the incisors should be lined up neatly in a straight line like guardsmen; the dental arch (arcade) should curve gently forward from the canines.
Given that the head and muzzle are the result of dwarfing, it is not too surprising that the upper and lower mandibles are not evenly shortened; the result is an over- or under-shot bite. If overshot, the upper incisors protrude beyond the lower, in severe cases the bottom incisors may be level with the top canines. If undershot, the bottom incisors stick out beyond the top ones.
If i'm reading them right, they have a small underbite - i don't have a picture -i can't get them to hold their mouth open long enuf LOL Basically, it's the small bottam front teeth - to look at them side to or head on - jaw doesn't look misaligned - but if you open their mouths, the bottam teeth go a small bit beyond the top teeth - but what i call their "canines", line up top and bottam (alternating), as is described in a scissor bite. Bindi is small enuf that maybe she'll outgrow it - Bruno's is the worse and Bella's is just a small one. There's not a huge jutting out of jaw - just when you're holding their mouths open, as I said, you can see bottam teeth come out beyond the top. It's also hard to tell in that, no matter how many times i've opened their mouth - they fight against it :)