Dental Care in the Horse

Dental Care in the Horse

Horses and ponies, being herbivorous grazers, where the teeth are constantly in contact with hard and abrasive ground, as well as lush grass, have been blessed with continuously growing teeth. The front incisors are required for nibbling the grass, the tongue drags the grass into the mouth and the large molars grind the grass into a form acceptable for digestion in the stomach and intestines. Without this grinding action (mastication) the fibrous material of the grass, hay and hard feed is insufficiently broken down to allow digestion to occur. This will result in weight loss and in the case of horses in the wild, starvation.The inability to masticate properly is often pain related and the horse may exhibit the problem in a variety of ways. With any weight loss in a horse, dental disease should be considered but there may be more subtle signs than this. I would always advise owners to examine horses dung carefully once every month. There should be no fibrous material in the dung over half an inch long. If there is, the suggestion is that your horse is having problems chewing the food properly. ‘Quidding’ is the equine term for the dropping of food from the mouth when eating. Some horses are just gluttonous but many exhibit this sign due to mouth discomfort. Resistance to the bit can again, be due to dental problems. Wolf teeth, and more commonly sharp edges on the front molars causing ulceration of the cheeks will cause pain, especially when shortening of the reins or turning. Often owners note that the horse is becoming ‘harder’ on one rein than the other.

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There is enormous debate about wolf teeth. Contrary to popular thoughts, these small, vestigial teeth, which are seated just in front of the upper main molars (they officially are designated, premolar 1) erupt at a very young age when the horse is just a foal. If they have never caused a problem before and your horse is ten years old, they are unlikely to be the source of the problem in the future! The permanent incisors erupt at varying times between two and a half and four and a half years of age. The molars similarly change around the same time, the final permanent molars pushing through when five to six years old. Occasionally impaction or abnormal positioning of teeth occur and it is probably worth examining a horses mouth at six years of age to ensure a normal dentition has developed. There is a natural slope on the molar teeth due to the masticatory action of the mouth with a pronounced edge on the outer surface of the upper molars. A similar edge may develop on the inner surface of the lower molars. With time these edges may become exaggerated with sharp enamel points developing that can cause trauma to the cheeks and tongue when chewing. These are the edges which need to be ‘rasped’ ( another name is ‘floating’ ) smooth. Hooks may also develop on the front upper, and rear lower molars with age. These latter hooks are almost impossible to see without sedation and using a ‘gag’ to open the mouth. Many other tooth conditions can occur: Chewing on a stone may result in a fracture of a tooth. A foreign body such as a twig may impact between two teeth. Infected tooth roots and abscesses do occur.

Most owners are aware of the need to have their horses teeth ‘checked’ every so often. Guernsey has a number of visiting ‘tooth dentists’ most of whom do an adequate job at floating (rasping) molar teeth.

Very few ‘tooth dentists’ have any professional qualification in the United Kindgom. Any surgical proceedure (such as removal of wolf teeth) or the use of sedative and anaesthetic drugs by a person other than a veterinary surgeon, is illegal and potentially dangerous. This situation leaves the horse owner in a highly vulnerable position, when, as sometimes happens, medical complications arise.

If you do have any concerns about dentition or mouth conditions, please contact one of our veterinary surgeons. To provide full access , both visually and manually, to the teeth for examination we believe that sedation is required in most instances. If the procedure is carried out at the time of annual vaccination costs are reduced. Please specify that you wish this to be done when you telephone for an appointment.