A Thorough Examination For Your Equine Is Essential
by Nic Graham EqD & Olivia Zulian EqD
Dental treatment is an invasive procedure for human orhorse, but a necessity for good health, safe horse ridingand getting 100% performance out of your horse everytime. As your horse communicates with you throughbehaviour, it is your responsibility to read thesebehaviours and act accordingly. Don’t always assumethat bad behaviour is to ensure you have a bad ride; itcould be a sign of something happening in the mouth.Social changes, enforced by us onto the horse,necessitate that Equine Dentistry advances. Previously,the trend has been to not adjust the Incisor teeth and ina perfect world you wouldn’t. In the modern equestrianworld, Balance of the horse head is definitive. Just someof the associated problems from the imbalance of thehead:
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Lack of flexion from poll
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Sublux of latter vertebrae of the back 17 & 18
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Inversion to the bit {under the bit}
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Aversion to the bit {above the bit}
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Crookedness and lack of bend and flexion of theneck & body
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Avoidance to the half-halt, upward & downwardtransitions
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TMJ Problems – TemporoMandibular Jointranging from head shyness to unsoundness.Whole mouth Dentistry is care of all the teeth of themouth - not just the back ones. Remember the old days(movies) where they would check the horses front teethto see if it was a good horse or not?You should be aware that proper equine dentistry has alot more to it than just sticking a float into the horse'smouth and rasping a few strokes. It involves, or shouldinvolve, much more than the routine "floating".
A thorough examination is essential!
Your Dentist should watch your horse move and look athis muscle structure, palpate the TMJ and areassurrounding the head before they get to looking in thehorse’s mouth.They should then look, touch and feel to examine theteeth and the mouth thoroughly to check for anyabnormalities or loose teeth. Don't be happy until yourDentist has taken a flashlight or a headlamp and actuallyLOOKs into the mouth, and also puts his hand in toFEEL everywhere.The horse should be examined for abnormal eruptionpatterns, malocclusions, wear pattern, sharp points,loose teeth, cracked teeth, pockets, infections, retainedcaps etc.The horse should be checked that the lateral movementof the mandible (lower jaw) is normal and that the teethmake grinding possible.The masticatory muscles are checked for soreness orswelling. Remember that many muscles of masticationare intimately connected to the muscles of locomotion.And after all this you do the necessary treatment andcorrections to any problems that might be present.
100% Occlusion = 100% Performance
Does your dentist measure your horses mouth beforeand after he has worked on your horse to make sure heis in 100% occlusion? If your horse is not in occlusion(as we see in 99% of horses, and where 60% are justfunctional), then you will NEVER fix or improvestraightness, good poll pressure, or flexion, let alone thenormal dental problems such as under/over bites, parrotmouths and dental diseases.It scares me now to think that many of my dentists usedto go in rasp/float, pull caps etc. But how does he knowwhich side of my horse needs more rasping than theother without measuring it first? He could have beenputting it into further Malocclusion!We are professional dentists we measure, check,measure, check etc. We want an even mouth for 100%Performance.
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