Cleet Griffin, DVM, DABVP (clinical assistant professor, Department of Large Animal Medicine and Surgery, Texas A&M) reminds us that regular dental care is an important component in overall health care.
“Much of what we are doing in the horse’s mouth is taking care of sharp, painful dental points. There are several factors involved in why teeth develop these points, including the horse’s anatomy and the way the mouth is designed, the way horses chew, and the way horses are managed,” explains Griffin.
What they eat is also an issue. “Research has shown that grazing horses chew about 100 times a minute, with a strong side-to-side chewing motion. Studies back in the 1940s showed that horses have more up and down movement in their chewing cycle when eating grain, and less side-to-side motion, and don’t chew as many times per minute,” he says. Eating hay produces side-to-side motion like grazing, but there’s less chewing time with hay. A horse in a stall eating hay chews about 60 times per minute, and when eating concentrate it’s even less chews per minute, and much less total time spent eating. All these changes contribute to the formation of points.
Horses under natural conditions develop some points; their anatomy alone sets them up for this. But problems become magnified with confinement and many types of feed. Thus, domestic horses need regular care.
In the breeding of horses today we don’t often pay attention to teeth. We don’t select for mouth conformation as much as we select for other traits like speed or athletic ability. A horse with parrot mouth (overbite) or sow mouth (underbite) may pass this defect to offspring. These horses may need more regular dental care than others—depending on how these horses are kept and managed.
COMMON PROBLEMS
“The purpose of dentistry in horses is to detect and alleviate painful areas in the mouth so the horse can chew more comfortably or perform better when ridden. A dental exam can detect problems such as sharp points and improper contact between the cheek teeth or the incisors. These things, over time, can lead to irregular wear of the crowns or fractured crowns [exposing inner tissues or pulp of the tooth—which is painful and can lead to abscesses and tooth loss]. Malocclusions can lead to formation of periodontal pockets alongside the teeth and to periodontal disease, which is painful and can also lead to tooth loss,” he says.
Tooth loss in horses can be serious. “A horse can probably lose a single tooth and still chew, but the way the teeth are designed, they function as spacers for the other teeth,” explains Griffin. “If the horse loses a tooth, the other teeth start drifting apart, and this allows feed material to pack in between them and cause periodontal problems,” he says. In addition to food build-up, the opposite tooth also needs something to wear against, and if a tooth is missing the opposite tooth becomes too long. Over time this will adversely affect the way the horse chews.
Malocclusion should be detected as early as possible, before it leads to other problems. Improperly matching teeth are easier to correct early.
SELECTING A DENTIST
There are very few veterinarians whose practice is solely dentistry, but many equine practitioners consider dentistry an important component in their practice. There are lay dentists who do nothing but work on horses’ teeth, but many states do not allow them to practice unless they are affiliated with a licensed veterinarian.
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