Problems Caused Due to Lack of Dental Care

A horse's deciduous teeth are replaced by permanent teeth by the time they are five years old. The teeth all grow until about six years old. Then the crowns are worn away, particularly the molars, through abrasion against the teeth on the opposite jaw, a young horse has a much larger reserve molar crown than the older horse.

The incisors, do not continue to erupt to the same extent as the molars. Consequently, wear with age lowers the amount of crown, even to the gum in the very old horse. Unlike the molar they rarely fall out.

Not all tooth problems are caused by lack of dental care, some are caused by the inevitable ageing process. This is the upper molar arcade of an older horse. The lower arcade had erupted and completely worn away the upper arcade. The teeth are so worn back that you can see the gums in the middle of the teeth.

Highly recommend. Glenn treated my nervous young pony with a very calm disposition. Thanks Glenn!
Lauren Brill

The canines which are never in contact above and below do not wear out.

With the backwards and forwards movement of the lower jaw, hooks may develop on the second upper premolar, which inhibits the forward movement of the lower jaw against the upper jaw. As a result of this inhibited movement the molar furthest back on the lower jaw will also develop a hook, which will then also prevent the lower jaw moving forwards leading to weight loss and health issues.

This 5 year old horse had never had any dental checks or work done so it's teeth were razor sharp. As a result it had lacerations, bruising and swelling on the cheek walls and tongue.

Here we have a very severe incisor slant on a Spanish horse even though he had good molar contact his mouth was unbalanced. He will be seen again in a couple of months to continue levelling the incisors.

7 year old with suspected displaced wolf tooth or retained deciduous cap fragment.

As part of the examination I check the jaw alignment and all the muscles around this area. This is to help achieve the three-point balance.

The image to the left is due to this poor horse not receiving regular dental care, unfortunately there is not much that can be done for this horse now, other than making sure the situation doesn't get out of control and just keeping him as comfortable as possible.

Having your horse's teeth examined could help solve a lot of other problems for you and pain and discomfort for your horse. For example, not eating and/or losing weight, pulling on the bit or head shaking. These could be all teeth related.