Posted by Geoff Tucker on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
According to an authoritative text on equine dentistry, there are two types of procedures used in examining the mouth of the horse. The first is called visual and the other is non-visual. What are the differences and why should you care?
With visual, the mouth of the sedated horse is opened with a device called a speculum or mouth gag and a light source is used along with mirrors and cheek retractors. The advantage is that visualization of the teeth and mouth cavity can offer information that would be otherwise be missed by non-visual methods. Is this true? Is what they find important?
A few years back, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Wien, Austria examined the inside of the mouths of 300 horses using a small TV camera. They thoroughly inspected the inside of the mouth and recorded their results. Several things jumped to my attention.
Before I say more, I need to disclose that the report I read was NOT the actual report but the synopsis offered in an article printed in The Horse magazine on Dec 26, 2008 (# 13324). This magazine's reputation is excellent (Howdy Chad!) so I will assume the information to be accurate.
The most surprising sentence was this: "Due to the anatomy of the horses' oral cavity and associated structures, it is not possible to open the mouth wide enough to directly visualize all surfaces of the teeth, even with the assistance of mouth gags, lights, and buccal (cheek) retractors." This statement from the vet researcher says that the non-camera visualization technique misses things.
Another surprising thing I noticed was this observation: Of the 300 horses inspected, 96% had dental points and 64% had focal overgrowths of part of the tooth. I found the same amount in horses I examine using the non-visual digital palpation technique. You can see me use my hand and fingers to feel what my eyes can't see by going to my web site here.
Finally, the study using the camera technology identified that HALF of the horses had fine visible cracks or fissure fractures and tooth cavities ("infundibular hypoplasia/carries/cavities"). Further ONE QUARTER of them had spaces between their teeth ("diastemas"). This really surprised me because I see no relevance between these observations and my clinical experience with actual horses. Yes I find about 3 fractured teeth every week in my practice. The horse very rarely suffers any problems form this other than when the tooth rubs a sore in the cheek. After removing the piece, the horse goes back to eating and performing well.
So how important is it to visualize the inside of the mouth? In my experience, my fingers feeling what the horse feels on every edge of each tooth - what is known as the non-visual technique - is time tested and works as well as any other technique.
As an example, this week I worked on a mini donkey. Using my fingers I was able to examine and find a slab fracture of the last upper right cheek tooth on the cheek side. There is no other spot in the horse's mouth harder to examine than this spot. I was able to identify the fractured piece, insert a dental pick, and using finger strength, extract the piece (about 1 inch by 1/2 inch by 1/8 inch). The owner had no complaints about him before we started working on him so this was an incidental finding.
I am sure the same results would have been achieved with the mouth gag, mirror, and cheek retractor. But don't let them discount the old way. It works well and with practice can be done by any equine dentist or vet.
I look forward to the day when my profession and equine dental associations consider the old fashioned technique of non-visualization to be still valid and effective. I prove it every day.
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Sun, Jun 06, 2010
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Interviews on the Horse Tip Daily Radio Show
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Fri, Jul 31, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Teeth in horses younger than 5 years old go through very dynamic changes. When you start to float a young horse, it becomes a commitment to continue floating that horse every 3 to 4 months because in that short period of time, new teeth erupt, floated caps are ejected, and soft teeth become sharp again.
This video explains this paradigm and replaces the old saying that only older horses need to be floated. In addition, I add a description of caps, cap remnants, wolf teeth, and jaw lumps. More detailed descriptions of these can be found in individual videos on the subjects.
FAQ by Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.theequinepractice.com.
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Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Fri, Jul 31, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Teeth in horses younger than 5 years old go through very dynamic changes. When you start to float a young horse, it becomes a commitment to continue floating that horse every 3 to 4 months because in that short period of time, new teeth erupt, floated caps are ejected, and soft teeth become sharp again.
This video explains this paradigm and replaces the old saying that only older horses need to be floated.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at
www.theequinepractice.com.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
There is no effective way to determine that your horse has beenfloated well. This is why so many bad equine dentists exist. Modernequine dentists use a light and a jacked open mouth to show you an issue, but using sight is not a complete way to evaluate the mouth.
The best way to determine if a job is well done is to listen to your horse. How does he respond to the floating process? Without pain medication, the horse will often demonstrate relief right there. Does the horse carry the head and neck with symmetry when ridden and does he accept contact from the bit without resistance?
In this video I suggest other problems outside the mouth that may cause what looks like teeth issues on the bit. Another video will discuss this in depth.
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Excessive tissue laying in front of the bottom first cheek teeth can become extremely irritating to some horses. Here is where a picture is better than words. I have one on my web site in the article called "Flabby Cheeks". Rounding the first cheek teeth is commonly called the bit seat. The purpose is to smooth out the edges to prevent the trapping of this excessive tissue. Flabby cheeks is actually in some horses the primary cause of bit pain.
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
These are definitions used in modern equine dentistry to describe issues seen inside the horse's mouth. These dentists evaluate the movement of the jaw and adjust this movement through filing off edges in a manner that aligns the jaw. I feel that there are three issues that invalidate these procedures. First is that the primary cause is not directly addressed (the removal of pain); however, the sharp points are removed so it is addressed secondarily. In other words, it is the removal of pain that the horse is responding to, not the equilibration procedure. The second issue is that a horse chews 10,000 to 40,000 times in a day so all the work done by the equilibration process may be gone in a week or two as the horse equilibrates by himself. And third, if the jaw has been out of equilibration for a while, is it possible that correcting it in one procedure may injure the horse? We certainly would not abruptly change hoof angles without worrying about creating lameness. So why do so many horses after being floated using these modern techniques stop eating for days or weeks?
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Horse teeth erupt throughout their life and it is worn down by the opposing tooth. If nothing is there to wear down this growth, it becomes excessive and that is what we call a hook. This video describes various types of hooks and what problems they cause in your horse. Removing these hooks is the most aggressive procedure I perform but the results are worth it.
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Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
The frequency of floating a horse is variable and is related to the individual horse. Often, we think of prevention on a mechanical device, like how often do you change oil in a car's engine. A horse is a living thing and not a machine. It is the threshold of pain that determines how frequently you need to float. Other determinants are genetics, age, and discipline. The least determinant is the cost because the benefit of preventing pain inside the horse's mouth is well worth the little annual cost you spend getting it done. Plus, this one preventive act may help decrease other costs such as lost hay and grain (spilled or not eaten due to pain), lost training time (horse is more compliant and willing to learn), and decreased vet bills (a more comfortable horse is usually more healthy).
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
The removal of material from the front teeth of a horse (nippers, incisors) has been recently embraced by modern equine dentists. Horses have died from this procedure. There is no basis in good science for performing incisor reduction and until someone proves to me the necessity for it being done, I will not do it. The veterinary profession has moved away from routinely performing this procedure (AAEP and BEVA - both from a seminar at their meetings in 2003).
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Based on a work at
www.theequinepractice.com.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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