Page 104 - October 2015

“I am very frustrated with the way equine dentistry has evolved into a profit industry in many instances. There are equine dentists who are veterinarians and some that aren’t (and all they do is dentistry), and their whole livelihood is making money doing teeth. So they float every horse, whether the teeth need it or not. It frustrates me that dentistry has become more concerned with making money than with the welfare of the horse. Some people recommend that every horse needs teeth floated once a year, and this is not healthy. This wears teeth out too quickly and soon you have an old horse with no teeth,” says Connally.
“The horse’s mouth should dictate what is done or not done. I have 2 horses of my own that are half-brothers. I floated the teeth on one of them when he was 13. His half-brother I had to float 3 times by the time he was 7 due to the structural differences in their mouths. Every horse is different,” he says.
It is important, however, to have dental checkups for every horse and not wait until a horse is in his late teens or into his 20’s before checking teeth. This way you find out about a problem before it becomes a bigger problem. “I am a firm believer in routine exams, but not necessarily routine treatments. There is a difference,” he says.
A lot depends on diet because teeth wear more quickly in certain situations. “If you feed a horse just grass hay or grass hay and pasture, the teeth tend to wear more normally (and
evenly) than if you feed alfalfa hay and grain,” says Connally.
There is also a genetic difference. “In a small horse with a small, pointy mouth, or in a miniature horse, the teeth may not fit in the jaw as well as in a larger horse with more room for the teeth. An old mustang with a big head and Roman nose may have fewer teeth prob- lems and the teeth may wear more normally. Some horses have mouths too small for their teeth,” he explains.
“I grew up on a Wyoming ranch. We didn’t float teeth very much and we got away with
it because the horses were out on grass where they wore their teeth normally, and because they were common-looking horses with large heads. Today, most horses are show horses and more intensely managed, and we can’t get away with that as much. We do have to do more dentistry,” he says.
Selective breeding in many breeds has also made horses more prone to mouth problems. Priorities in selection have been for certain desirable traits, such as color, performance and speed, and mouth conformation has been low priority. Hence, we see some horses with mis- matched jaws/teeth like parrot mouth or sow mouth, or mouths too small for the teeth to function properly. These are high-maintenance horses that need routine dental care.
“Some dentists fill cavities in horses’ teeth, but this is controversial. It makes no sense to
fill a cavity in a tooth that keeps growing out and will wear the cavity off. Horses’ teeth are not the same as human teeth. When I was doing dental work at Colorado State University, we saw a few horses with holes in their teeth that went clear up into the jaw and caused infections in the head. A person could never grind all the way up in there to get the whole infection. They tried doing a root canal, but could never get all the infection out of the 3-inch-long tooth and finally ended up pulling the tooth. Sometimes, the best solution is just to pull the tooth. But, then you have a gap where the other tooth doesn’t match and the horse needs ongoing dental care. This may be better for the horse, however, than trying to deal with an infected tooth.”
Young Horses
Young horses often suffer more tooth problems than adults during the transitional process when the temporary baby teeth are being replaced with permanent teeth. The horsemen should pay attention to these changes to be aware of any problems that might need attention.
It’s easy to see the incisors, or front teeth, and witness shedding and replacement with larger ones, but not so easy to examine the back teeth, and these are the ones that cause the most problems in the young adult horse. The temporary back teeth usually push up through
Young horses often suffer more tooth problems than adults during the transitional process when the temporary baby teeth are being replaced with permanent teeth
Young horses will sometimes develop bony protrusions on the lower jaw as permanent cheek teeth emerge, or tooth bumps, if molars pinch and inhibit growth of other molars and cause an impaction.
Young and old horses can get sharp points,
which must be removed to make the horse more comfortable.
102 SPEEDHORSE, October 2015
equine health
Bruce Connally