The Best Investment

If you could increase the chance of your horse living ten years longer, would you be interested? Let’s see if your horse qualifies. Do you feed good quality grass, hay, grain and water enough to satisfy all the nutritional needs of your horse? Do you keep him or her current on the necessary vaccinations and deworming? Is the stall and exercise area kept up in a safe manner? GREAT. Now, if you have provided all these things, surely you are doing everything that can be done to help your horse live a long, happy life. NOT QUITE!

EQUINE AFFAIRE 2003

          Dental Patient
          with facial
          swelling.

Even if your vet checks your horse’s teeth every six months, if your horse has not had a thorough dental within the last six months, chances are very high that there are points on the outside of the upper premolars and molars (cheek teeth) which are causing either discomfort 24 hours per day or, even worse, digging ulcerations (holes) in the cheeks. (A thorough oral exam requires the use of a full-mouth speculum and for most professionals, the only complete exam is accomplished with the horse under mild sedation.)

How many horses need this kind of frequent dental care? All of them!

At a past Missouri Veterinary Medical Association Annual Convention, Dr. Jack Easley presented a lecture and a “wet lab” (a hands-on study session using horses). Dr. Easley has been doing in-depth equine dentistry for several years now and is a highly respected authority in that area of veterinary medicine and surgery. When asked how many horse he sees that don’t need some kind of dental work, he replied, “They all need it."

Why would our horses get inadequate dental care from their usual health care provider? A few horses (probably less than 5%) do get adequate tooth care from their vets. The problem has been that, until recently, most veterinary schools have not been teaching thorough equine dentistry! Because of this lack of formal education in this important aspect of horse health, many owners have successfully sought help from non-veterinary horse dentists. These individuals picked up a ball that we dropped several decades ago, and they ran with it.

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