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| Equine Dentistry |
Regular dental care is essential to your horse's health. Properly maintained, horses can have good functional teeth well into their 20's. Horses evolved as grazing animals and their teeth are well adapted for that purpose, but today's pet and performance horse requires regular examination and treatment for three reasons:
1.)We have modified the horse's diet and eating patterns through confinement and domesticated feeds.
2) We demand more of performance horses at a very young age and
3) We often select breeding animals without regard to dental considerations. Extensive grazing on a daily basis and natural selection for positive dental traits through survivability in the wild have therefore been largely eliminated.
Because the upper jaw of the horse is wider than the lower jaw, as the horse grinds
its food with a sideways motion, sharp enamel points tend to form along the edges of the teeth. These points are
most prominent on the outside of the upper cheek teeth (premolars and molars) and the inside of the lower cheek
teeth. These points should be rasped periodically to keep from cutting the cheeks and tongue. This process is called
"floating".
Other common dental problems are: retained deciduous(baby) teeth , called "caps"; sharp wolf teeth; hooks
on upper front premolars and lower back molars; broken or missing teeth; unevenly worn or protruding incisor (front)
teeth. These problems can lead to difficult chewing, poor feed utilization, trouble with the bit, and even bucking
or head throwing.
At Napa Valley Veterinary Hospital we emphasize equine dental care as a cornerstone of a total preventative health
care program. We will check your horse's teeth at every opportunity and will enjoy talking with you about this
important area.
In addition to identifying existing problems, there are some proactive procedures that can benefit you and your
horse. One example is creating a "Bit Seat" to make the bit placement more comfortable in the mouth.
This is accomplished by beveling back and rounding off the first upper and lower cheek teeth. Because of the unique
structure if the equine tooth this extra filing does no damage to the tooth or its nerves. Doing this, in fact,
eliminates any painful pressure points from the bit and can improve performance especially from horses who seem
to resent bit pressure.
How about canine or "Bridle Teeth" ? We routinely shorten and round off these teeth in an effort to make
the mouth more comfortable. The canines can get extremely sharp. Incisor overbites sometimes called "Parrot
Mouth" can also be improved on, especially in the young horse. Incisors that are too long relative to the
cheek teeth can cause severe chewing problems, especially later in life. We will float or even cut off excessive
length of abnormal incisors.
Power tools are sometimes utilized to reduce the time needed to correct certain problems. Large thick hooks can
be ground down with carbide drum drill attachments. Long incisors can be amputated with diamond impregnated cutoff
wheels. This is accomplished under sedation so that the horse is not unduly alarmed.
Sedation also provides a quieter more comfortable patient and increased safety for the horse, handler and veterinarian.
These methods while not always necessary allow us to perform procedures routinely that previously were very time
consuming and difficult. For the more extensive dental visits we will often administer or prescribe a pain relief
medication such as phenylbutazone for a day or so.
Dental exams take only a few minutes and can be done at the same time as any routine visit. Weanlings and yearlings
should be checked for early developing problems just as all 2 and 3 year olds should have their mouth examined
prior to entering training.
Interesting Dental Tidbits
--Endodontics (root canals) can be done in horses.
--The horse's lower jaw is 30% narrower than the upper jaw.
--Upper molars are wider than lower molars
--The horse has 36-42 permanent teeth.
--The average length of a 6 year old thoroughbred incisor (root and all ) is
2.75 inches.
--Molars in the upper jaw are about 3.5 inches long.
--Horses have wolf teeth and canine teeth, but dogs have no horse teeth.
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