August is International Dental Month for Horses
Did you know horses have 36 teeth and up to four wolf teeth?
Your horse’s dental hygiene is important to good mouth health.
Did you know that horses require regular dental exams? Did you know that horses are hypsodonts, just like rabbits, sheep and cows. This means their teeth constantly grow and are worn down by the action used to chew fibrous feed. Horse's mouths need regular dental examinations to ensure teeth are growing evenly and there are no sharp points causing ulceration to the cheeks and tongue.
At the EHPC we pride ourselves on performing thorough dental examinations using sedation, mirror, a dental gag and light or even dental video-endoscope. This allows us to thoroughly examine every aspect of your horse’s mouth. A regular dental check allows early identification and management of more serious conditions like caries.
We use motorised dental equipment rather than manual rasping. This helps ensure that sharp points and overgrowths are corrected as quickly as possible without causing harm to your horse’s mouth. Our newer motorised dental equipment (Terafloat) even has extra lights in the shaft to ensure we always have adequate visualisation of your horse’s teeth when performing our corrections. It is battery operated, so we can perform dentistry on site even when no power is available.
The link below provides a great summary of equine dentistry, if you have any further questions or wish to book an appointment please don’t hesitate to contact us on 8313 1999.