Broken Puppy Tooth

[spidey]

My new little one (Nina, a Nottweiler) broke one of her puppy molars the day before yesterday. It's broken off almost right at the gumline and there is a clot on it. I took her to the vet and the vet feels the remainder of the tooth should be removed because it poses a risk to the adult molar (and her health in general) since it's an open conduit for infection (this puppy molar has three decent-sized roots, all of which are now open to the rest of her mouth). It doesn't seem to be bothering her (but she does have a very high pain threshold).

On the one hand, I don't want to risk her health and her adult tooth (especially since it's a molar, and not a less-important tooth), and since she's only 12 weeks old, she may have a little while to go before she starts losing her baby teeth naturally. On the other hand, I'm really nervous about putting her under at such a young age, even with the newer, better anaesthetics. The vet will allow me to stay throughout the procedure, and the vet is modern and has progressive views about vet care in general (she follows the newer vaccination protocols, has a good understanding of nutrition, etc.).

Any thoughts or similar experiences would be appreciated.

[Ayoka]

Not directly or with puppies but...

a friend of mine had a dog that had a canine toth removed with only local anesthetic and some sort of mild sedative, not general anesthetic. (She's really, really anti general). Maybe they could do this because the canine was mostly intact above the gumline and it didn't require digging.

Is local just as hard on the little ones as general?