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A guarded carbide burr used in equilibration |
A rotary bur is used to apply bit seats. |
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Interpretation |
The interpretation of this study by many respected horse dentistry colleagues and myself is that, while one certainly could cause damage from heat, the instrument is kept in continual motion during the process of providing thorough dentistry for horses, and any large portions of protruding tooth are done in smaller increments, interspersed with work in other areas in the patient’s oral cavity, break times and massaging the patient’s temporal muscles, rinsing the horse’s mouth, showing the owner their horse’s malocclusions, charting, drawing up additional sedative, etc. |
It is also true that, in the hands of experienced equine dental practitioners, power dental instruments have been used for over 15 years in horses without evidence of thermal damage as a result. It is also interesting to note that in a text written in the early 1900’s, a foot-peddle-powered drill for grinding horses’ teeth when dentistry was being performed on our main source of transportation. |
Undoubtedly, one could cause damage with these instruments, as with any method of performing dental care, but the likelihood decreases with the use of good judgment, precision and common sense. It is also true that power instruments have been in use for a long time in human dentistry, which of course deals with much smaller teeth, which could be damaged much more rapidly than a massive horse tooth, yet the problem is rare even in our own teeth. We would be unappreciative if our own dentist reverted back to using outdated, un-mechanized dental instruments complete with an ether sedative or a swallow of bottled spirits, no local anesthetic and assistants to hold us down so dental procedures could be performed. |
