Apparently not. After it was announced earlier this week that the Navy SEAL team which had succesfully carried out Osama bin Laden’s assassination, included a SEAL dog, and that the specs for SEAL dogs included titanium fangs, it became quite a subject of debate. Are the US Military taking perfectly good dogs, ripping their teeth out and replacing them with titanium teeth? Well, no, not quite.
The titanium fangs are used to repair teeth that get damaged during training and combat. They are not as stable or solid as real teeth because they are basically dental implants, or crowns, and they are, I imagine, more painful for the animal. So then, no, the military are not systematically replacing perfectly good dog teeth with dentures, however, the four legged SEALs, might arguably be receiving, better dental care than their human counterparts. Granted the dogs use their teeth for combat more than humans do, with the notable exception of Mike Tyson.
Having said that, I can imagine how being confronted by a metal toothed army dog could be rather frightening.
