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Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

cheeks, and they’ll be so sore the horse won’t want to eat. Or, when you put a bit in the horse’s mouth and ask him to carry his head differ- ently, he’ll start acting up and some- one may want to discipline him, but it’s really because there is more pressure being put on his teeth and it’s hurting him. The converse is true of the man- dibular arcade. Because it’s more narrow, the lingual aspect of the teeth do not have good contact, so there is nothing to grind them down. Thus, we need to grind down the lingual aspect of the mandibular arcade’s pre-molars and molars. That’s where the power tools come in handy because we are going through enamel and cementum. In years past, we didn’t have power tools, we were using hand tools, and as we would manually grind the horse would get upset with what we were doing. You have about a 15- to 20-minute window to work before the horse would get tired of this and you’d have to stop. Of course, we would tranquilize him to calm him a bit, but he can feel what’s going on in his mouth. A horse’s head is full of huge sinus cavities, and as you grind, the sound is echoing through those sinuses, getting louder and louder as you’re working. So because this can sometimes really freak the horse out, having a horse under a bit of sedation makes all the difference in the world. And, of course, horses don’t just open wide like a human patient would. We use an item called a mouth speculum. Using a very bright LED light source we’re able to take a good look around. We use dental mirrors and dental picks to evalu- ate the occlusal surface, the man- dibular and maxillary pre-molars and molars, and then we look for diastemas, fractures, chipped teeth and cavities, which are not in abun- dance. It’s really about balancing the mouth, and this is of particular importance for performance horses, who must be pain-free. Some of the horses at this [WEG] competition have a bit in their mouth, there is someone sitting on their back who is asking them to carry their head in an unnatural position, and then maybe jump five and a half feet in the air, then land and let’s go do it again real quick. Their head carriage already puts more pressure on their TMJ, so if one tooth is sticking up further, it will put more pressure on the tooth above or below it. When that hap- pens, it is exponentially more pain- ful as they flex their head. DENTAL TRIBUNE | May 2011 Equine Dentistry 11A AD g DT page 12A The anatomical portion of an equine dental chart. This horse was being transported to a recovery stall with padded walls after surgery on his leg. Ropes are tied to the horses’s tail and halter so that he does not try to stand as the anesthesia is wearing off. When he is able to try standing, staff will assist him so he does not injure himself.