Navy SEAL dogs have titanium teeth?

[snopes]

Comment: http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/05...-seal-dog-1-5/

Navy Seal Dogs have Titanium teeth?

Is the Daily serious? Snopes, please clear this up.

[AnglRdr]

Even if their teeth are titanium implants, their jaws wouldn't be, and jawbone isn't so hard (or the TMJ so stable) that it would be able to withstand piercing body armor.

Here is a photo purported to be of a dog with titanium teeth. I would think that, if this were true, his upper cuspids would have to be replaced as well as the lowers, but I still am dubious.

[The Goof]

I saw a news program the other day about this, can't remember what channel, but the titanium teeth are to replace a tooth that is lost or broken.

[Cervus]

I have, in fact, seen a dog with a metal tooth. I don't know if the tooth was actually titanium (it was a family pet, but the family is quite wealthy) but it was made to replace a tooth that had been extracted for medical reasons.

He was an old dog who died shortly after I met him, but he was stubborn and grouchy, and dang that tooth was scary.

[Xia]

I know a police dog with titanium teeth, the two upper fangs were capped this way because they had been broken. I don't think they just go and replace the dogs' teeth just to make them, titanium, but it may be done is they have broken teeth. Breaking teeth is not too uncommon is police/military dogs from what I've been told.

[Linnea]

I don't think these dogs have titanium teeth. From what I understand, titanium is really difficult to work with. I did a quick literature search, and found titanium implants in dogs that attach to prosthetic gold teeth, and cobalt-chrome-molybdenum crowns. No mention in the literature of actual teeth reconstructed from titanium or titanium crowns.

[Dreams of Thinking Machines]

This Wired article says that the teeth are not solid titanium:

"It would not be possible for them to use titanium teeth to make them even more aggressive," says Jeff Franklin, owner of Cobra Canine in Virginia Beach. "They're not as stable as a regular tooth would be, and they're much more likely to come out" during a biting.

The only reason to have titanium teeth? Medical reasons, he says, like "if a dog breaks a tooth...it's the same as a crown for a human."

[dungeondragon18]

I read an article somewhere pointing out that because it's so difficult and expensive to train police/military dogs, it's more cost effective to repair damaged teeth than it would be to retire the dog and train a replacement.