The Horse's Mouth
10 Things to Know about the Horse’s Mouth
Horses Chew a Lot
25,000x per day
Chewing causes points and tongue movement sharpens these points
Horses are Continuous Eaters
No gall bladder = no need to store bile
Hypsodont Teeth = continuously erupting (not growing)
The Purpose of Chewing
Create a swallowable bolus
Role of incisors: to fight with but not needed to harvest grass
Role of canine teeth: almost only in male horses and used to tear flesh in fight
Role of wolf teeth: these are being phased out (rudimentary or absent)
Role of check teeth: create a bolus of food that the horse can swallow. Also, it crushes the food increasing the surface area for digestion and distribute saliva.
Why do the teeth need floating? How often?
Chewing causes points but the tongue strops them into a razor’s edge that is painful against the check lining and tongue.
The individual threshold of pain determines how the horse reacts to pain which determines the frequency of floating
The purpose of the tongue is to clean the mouth, distribute saliva and to press the teeth to create a firm attachment of the teeth in their socket
The hardness of teeth - varies by arrangement of the prisms that make up the enamel
Horses that graze more, chew more. Liquid or limited diets often have few sharp edges.
Young Horse Mouths
Caps: the deciduous teeth of the incisors and pre-molars that naturally are ejected between 2 years and 5 years of age.
Wolf teeth: Trainers traditionally extract. Each horse should be evaluated individually.
Blind Wolf Teeth: Wolf teeth that never erupt and often not an issue, but some trainers insist on their removal
Old Horse Mouths
End Stage Teeth: Continual eruption of the tooth finally ends as no more tooth is available. They either fall out, are extracted, or remain healthy from years of care.
Quidding: When a horse balls up hay and spits it out indicating that the cheek teeth are no longer effective in creating swallowable bolus food.
Prevention plus genetics: Horses that are cared for often have a full set of teeth at the age of 30.
What else can happen other than sharp points?
Cavities
Split Teeth
Abscessed Tooth Roots
EOTRH: Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis
Foreign Objects
Trauma
Ulcers
Signs of Dental Problems
Quidding: Balling of hay in mouth and then dropping ball onto the stall floor
Bit Objections
Change in chewing behavior - abnormal positioning & altered rate
Insidious Onset: Often no signs with a good rider because the horse learns to avoid the pain and only people looking for these issues actually see the problem.
The Different Processes of Dentistry and who should Perform it
Floating is husbandry. Like removing excess hoof or a long hair coat. Floating only removes excess tooth, not the chewing surface.
Extractions & medication is veterinary medicine
Hand floating versus power tools
Dentistry is an art. “He who works with his hands, and his head and his heart is an artist.” - St. Francis of Assisi
Why we prefer horsemanship Dentistry
Routine floating is done 90% of the time without medication.
The horse becomes a willing partner in the process.
Dentistry is a process, not an event.
The goal is to remove all sources of oral pain.
Source: Horsemanship Dentistry
www.HorsemanshipDentistry.com
To learn more about Horsemanship Dentistry and whether it could be a career choice for you or someone you know, go to www.HorsemanshipDentistrySchool.com