Horse Dental Care

Unlike dogs, cats and humans, horses have long teeth.

They wear away slowly during their lives but that's OK for horses since they have about 4" of tooth crown below the surface of the gums hidden in the bone of the jaws.

As they wear away the tooth through grinding their food, more erupts into the mouth to take its place.

On average, a horse's teeth will wear and a new crown will replace it at a rate of about 0.11-0.16 inch (3-4mm) per year. That is enough tooth to last 25 years in an ideal situation.

Since most modern equines don't live under ideal circumstances (we have modified the horse's diet and eating patterns through domestication and confinement) modern equine dentistry is a very important part of your horse's heatlh care regimen. Like humans, horses get 2 sets of teeth in their lifetime. The baby teeth (deciduous teeth) are temporary.

The first baby incisors may erupt before the foal is born. The last baby teeth come in when the horse is about 8 months old.

Only the incisors and the first three cheek teeth have deciduous precursors to the permanent ones. These teeth begin to be replaced by adult teeth around 21/2 years.

By age 5 most horses have their full set of permanent teeth. An adult male horse has 40 permanent teeth, a mare has between 36-40.

Common Dental Problems
• Sharp enamel points forming on cheek teeth causing laceration of the cheeks and tongue
• Milk teeth that do not fall out
• Bit contact with wolf teeth
• Long and sharp canine teeth interfering with the bit
• Lost and or broken teeth
• Abnormal or uneven bite planes
• Very worn teeth
• Abnormally long teeth
• Infected teeth

Recognizing Dental problems

Horses may show signs of pain or irritation or they may show no noticeable signs of discomfort

Indicators of dental problems
• Loss of feed from mouth while eating
• Difficulty with chewing
• Excessive salivation
• loss of body conditioning
• Long stems or whole grains in manure
• Head tilting or tossing, bit chewing, tongue lolling, fighting the bit, resisting bridling
• Foul odor from the mouth or nostrils
• Nasal discharge or swelling of the face, jaw or mouth tissues

Preventative Maintenance

More Horse Dental Care

Floating

Routine maintenance of a horse's teeth is called floating. Floating removes the sharp enamel points and can help create a more even bite plane.

Removal of Wolf Teeth

Wolf teeth are very small teeth located in front of the second premolar and do not have long roots that set them firmly in the jaw bone. They rarely appear in the lower jaw. Horse may have one to four wolf teeth, or none at all. While not all wolf teeth are troublesome, veterinarians routinely remove them to prevent pain or interference from the bit.