We thank you in advance for your help and consideration. It arises from the periodontal ligament, which is the tissue that connects the tooth root to the bones of the jaw. Completely removing the tumor is curative, and is the standard treatment of choice. While this might sound very aggressive, dogs do extremely well with this type of surgery. Surgery is not required prior to treatment for this tumor type.
Radiation therapy requires delivering multiple small doses of radiation over several weeks.
There is very limited information concerning intra-lesional chemotherapy for this tumor. One small report suggests this might be helpful, but it remains to be seen if this is supported by larger studies. This type of treatment typically involves weekly injections over several weeks, and requires anesthesia to adequately deliver the drugs into the tumor site. If acanthomatous epulis is not treated, the tumor continues to grow over weeks to months. In general, the best time to treat any tumor is while it is still small.