Advanced Equine Dentistry - What Is It?
Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Aug 24, 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.
I was at another equine dentist's website where he described "Advanced Equine Dentistry. This is what he said:
Advanced equine dentistry, which is the complete evaluation and treatment of the mouth and the dental condition, has come a long way from the two floats and a bucket method of rasping off a few sharp points with a hand float. Small animal dentistry has traditionally followed human dentistry much more closely, but now the technology and education has evolved to do the same for our horses. Their teeth may be different from ours in composition and use, but they have many of the same needs as we do, with problems ranging from crooked teeth to dental decay. With a human, the ultimate correction for teeth that haven't been taken care of is a set of false teeth, and life goes on. With a horse, the ultimate result of bad teeth is inability to eat and, without human intervention, starvation.
Let me help you un-code this message. But first, recognize the fear and pushing of hot buttons it is trying to do. Nothing beats creating fear and guilt in the reader before trying to sell you a bill of goods.
In addition, he tries to gain credibility by tearing down other dentists. He implies that many do not do a complete evaluation and treatment. He implies that "two floats and a bucket" is not only bad dentistry, but it will cause the demise of your horse prematurely. Incompetency exists in every profession and is based on the individual, not the tools! As the advocate for your horse, you need to recognize professional looking fluff. This is a good example of it.
He talks of the evolution of technology and education in equine dentistry. What he means to say here is that even though he became a vet in the mid 70's, he did not, according to the web site, pursue equine dentistry until 1996 when 3 things happened: 1) power tools were developed, 2) routine drugging in veterinary medicine replaced horsemanship, and 3) a non-veterinary organization started that attempted to give credibility to a niche of veterinary medicine. In other words, now that floating horse teeth is easier and people look at equine dentistry as professional, he might as well make more money than he was as a state veterinarian.
My question here is simple. As a horseman, I was always told the importance of dental care. I made it a part of my practice from day one. In fact in 1983, the summer before graduation from vet school, I would float horses in the Hudson Valley of New York between 6 and 7:30 am before my job started. If I felt it was so important, why didn't this fellow and all the rest of the new "advanced" equine dentists feel the same way?
Simple question that has a simple answer.
Equine dentistry has always been important but requires time and effort to do. As one equine vet said to me, "That's grunt work" as she dismissed my invitation to watch what I do.
I am not an opportunist who is trying to make something special out of something routine. I am a horseman who has always believed in dental care for horses and was willing to make it a part of my practice from the beginning. Now it's time to educate horse owners so they can be the advocate for their horse's health.
Blog August 24, 2009 by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.