Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
a primer on horse’s teeth, and why you need “WHOLE OF MOUTH” equine dentistry
A service of your equine dentist
STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH
When a wild horse is hungry, he goes to a place where there is grass to eat and then he puts his nose down and begins tearing off the blades. To do this, he uses his upper lip to grasp a group of blades; his tongue to orient the blades as they come into his mouth; and his jaw muscles and incisor teeth to grasp and pinch the blades. With an abrupt, obliquely-backwards motion of the head, he then tears off the blades.
Once the blades are torn off, the horse uses his tongue to hold the wad of food against the cheek teeth on one side. A horse’s chewing motion is normally not up-and-down, but outside-to-inside on a slant determined by the slant of the matching surfaces of the upper and lower cheek teeth. Repeated chews work the mass into a spiralling, cigar-shaped wad. Blades get chopped finer and finer as they work their way down the cheek battery from front to rear, and are then swallowed. Chewing action thoroughly mixes the chopped blades with saliva, which is the first digestive juice. (It’s important not to forget that the oral cavity is the first part of the horse’s digestive system). After chewing and swallowing a segment of one “cigar”, the horse lowers its head to bite off another bunch of blades. The next mouthful may be chewed on either the right or left side, but horses can chew on only one side of the mouth at a time. A normal horse distributes the effort evenly.
Your horse lives under conditions quite different from those found in the wild. Artificial conditions which impact your horse’s mouth most are:
1. He lives inside of a fenced area.
2. Most of his diet is made up of processed feeds (grain and hay)/ or soft pastures.
3. He is not able to graze outside twelve+ hours per day.
Radio-tracking studies of mustangs show that the animals travel an average of thirty to forty miles per day throughout the year. They do this as a natural consequence of their search for food and water. The impact of fences (confinement) on domestic horses has often been documented -- for example, on stress levels, on the condition of their feet and legs, and on parasite loads. Fences enclosing groups of horses often create dry lot conditions under which there is little or no plant material available to graze. This makes feeding hay and grain necessary. How does this impact your horse’s teeth?
Although processed feeds still give your horse’s cheek grinders a workout, he does not use his incisors to tear off stems of hay or pellets. His incisor teeth thus receive no wear as the horse brings the food into his mouth. Over time, this results in failure of the horse’s incisors to keep pace in wear with the cheek teeth. The incisors may become so long that they partially or totally prevent the cheek teeth from touching. This in turn makes it impossible for your horse to chew his food properly. And that, in turn, can have some really horrific consequences, including:
1. Temporo-mandibular (TM. or jaw joint) pain, causing the horse to be difficult or unsteady on the bit.
2. Various forms of snaggle-toothed or wave mouth, causing uneven chewing pressure and the development of sharp hooks at the fore and aft ends of the cheek tooth batteries. Hooks & other protuberants can eventually become so long that they gouge the gum, creating abscesses and pain. Irrepairable damage may result.
3. Sharp points on the inner and outer edges of the cheek teeth. Points cause cheek and tongue abrasions, and again the tendency to fight the bit.
4. Failure to properly grind food, resulting in significant waste of food, and more seriously, in increases in the frequency of colic. (In order for horses to absorb water and nutrients in the gut, a mush of chopped grass blades must be continually present there, not long unchewed stems balled up like twine).
DOES YOUR HORSE NEED DENTISTRY
You can detect many common dental problems by observing your horse. Some behaviours that look like quirks may actually be due to a dental problem! Does your horse stuff as much grain into his face as possible with each bite, then dribble much of it all over the ground as he chews? Does your horse act like he’s mad at his hay, butting it with his head or grabbing and shaking it? Horses whose teeth hurt them or whose cheek grinders don’t meet properly shake hay -- especially Lucerne-- in order to knock the nutritious leaves off. They survive and even fatten by licking up the leaves and the small, shattered stems.
Does your horse spit out wads or balls of stems? Is his feed bin full of chopped sections of stems? Horses whose teeth are missing or who have sore cheeks, gums, or teeth will suck and gum hay, swallowing leaves and fine stems butspitting out stem-balls or quids.
Does your horse’s water bucket look like a slime pit?
Is there unchewed feed in your horse’s faeces ?
Have you observed him washing his hay or even dunking mouthfuls into the water while he chews them? Horses who need a dentist’s attention soak hay to soften it before attempting to chew or swallow. How does your horse’s breath smell? Rotten smells are a sign of trouble. Horses get tooth cavities and gum disease, just like people!
BEGIN BY INSPECTING YOUR OWN HORSE.
Open your horse’s lips and look at the incisor teeth from the front. What does the horse’s smile look like? Is there a tooth missing or out of alignment? An uneven, upside-down, slanted, or S-shaped smile, almost certainly means trouble with the cheek grinders too.
Does your horse’s head look the same on both left and right sides? Do the jaw muscles appear to be of the same size on both sides? Does he tip, wring, or toss his head when bitted? Uneven development of bones or muscles often means uneven wear on the teeth inside the mouth. Unsteady on the bit may also mean trouble. Look at your horse’s front teeth from the side. Do you see overshot or undershot teeth? Overshot and undershot horses can often be helped by a competent equine dentist. In the older horse, the teeth grow out from the jaws at a more horizontal angle, but should not be allowed to become too long.
Place your hands against your horse’s cheeks. Gently press in and upward, pressing the cheek against the teeth inside. Does the horse flinch? Does your horse dislike the cavesson or bosal, or seem exceptionally grumpy about having his head handled? These are signs that the horse may have sharp points on the teeth.
Do you own a young horse? Between the ages of 2 and 5, your horse is going to erupt about 40 permanent teeth and shed 24 baby teeth or caps.
Do you own an older horse? Barring injury, horses’ teeth come to the end of their lives beginning about age 20. Loose, expired teeth are often painful to the horse and may cause him to eat very slowly or to fail to grind food thoroughly, and thus to drop weight and condition.
HORSES TEETH
We are committed to helping owners understand their horses’ need for dental care, and we encourage owners to participate in developing management plans for horses with dental problems. Professional equine dentists often offer dental examination and consultation free of charge if you then opt to have the horse treated. Equine dentists may work alone or in conjunction with a veterinarian. You can expect to pay veterinarian’s call fee, fee for treatment, and cost of drugs administered if any. Charges are based on type of work performed. Here are some possible services:
Examination, evaluation, and consultation
Educational demonstrations
Remove wolf teeth/Pull caps or expired baby teeth
Float (grind off sharp points)
Cut and smooth canines, remove plaque buildup from canines
Performance floating (bit seats), especially beneficial to horses in high-performance careers
Incisor adjustment (shorten long incisors or reshape incisors which have worn more on one side than the other, thus reducing the horse’s ability to chew efficiently)
Cut hooks from fore and aft ends of cheek batteries
Occlusal table adjustment (grind off uneven snaggle teeth and re-shape grinding surfaces of cheek teeth)
Tooth extraction
WHAT ABOUT THE DENTIST'S QUALIFICATIONS ?
The profession of equine dentistry is not yet licensed. Some dentists who are in practice are not properly or sufficiently trained, and you as the horse owner should inquire as to where and how much training the person may have received. Some equine dentists are veterinarians, and some are not. Both veterinarian-dentists and qualified lay-dentists recognize equine dentistry as an independent profession akin to human dentistry, which requires not only extensive specialized training but constant practice and improvement of skills.
Throughout the world there are currently several associations which test and certify men and women as equine dentists. All of them require hundreds of hours of experience in field and clinical practice, classroom instruction, anatomy study, and training in proper technique before even the first level of certification may be gained. A one-weekend special topics course, or one- time attendance at any course, is not likely to be enough.
Does treatment hurt my horse? The “nerve” in horse teeth lies much deeper than in human teeth. Examination procedures, the use of equipment such as the dental speculum, and floating the teeth do not normally give the horse pain.
How do you get the horse to let you put your arm or the dental instruments in his mouth? The professional equine dentist has received training not only in treatment, but in horsemanship and horse handling. His objective should be to talk the horse into cooperating or even helping with the necessary procedures. Drugs may or may not be required for procedures not requiring power equipment.
What is that contraption you’re putting on his head? The dental speculum helps to keep the horse’s mouth open so that the equine dentist can examine the horse’s rear cheek teeth thoroughly and safely. When properly adjusted and used it does not hurt the horse.
Are there any procedures that mightcause thehorse discomfort?Yes, extraction of teeth, adjustment of incisor length, and reshaping of the cheek teeth to name three. Professional equine dentists avail themselves of pain-relieving medication and/or chemical restraint when performing any procedure that is likely to frighten the horse or cause him discomfort.
Who administers pain medication?In most countries, a licensed veterinarian is the only person who may legally administer injectable pain-relieving medication and/or chemical restraint.
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