Undetected dental problems in rabbits are a major cause of more serious illnesses which develop due to the pain and stress of sore teeth and jaw.
Rabbits are hypsodonts, meaning that their teeth grow continually, throughout life.
In a normal rabbit, the teeth are aligned so that the wear against each other as the rabbit chews. The incisors are used only for cutting the food into manageable pieces that can then be prehended by the lips and tongue. It is the molars that do the grinding of food into the fine bits that are then swallowed and sent on for further processing in the GI tract. Dental malocclusion in rabbits is not uncommon, especially in the short-faced breeds which have been produced via generation upon generation of inbreeding. Although some veterinarians will be willing to regularly trim the teeth, this is stressful for the rabbit.