Advances in general practice dentistry

Equine dentistry is one of the most common tasks performed by equine practitioners despite scant evidence-based medicine supporting its role in weight loss or poor performance [1]. Whilst the science of equine dentistry is considerably deficient compared to the human dental field, it is encouraging that this knowledge shortfall is slowly being remedied via the vast array of fundamental research recently published. Equine Veterinary Journal’s first virtual issue ‘Advances in Equine Dentistry: 2009 and 2010’ (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1001/ (ISSN)2042-3306/homepage/virtual_issue__dentistry.htm) and the recent issue of The Veterinary Clinics of North America (2013, issue 29) [2] dedicated to “Advances in Equine Dentistry” serve to illustrate this well. Crucially, these scientific publications are directly relevant and applicable to first opinion clinicians undertaking routine dental work in the field [3]. Furthermore, a current resurgence in the recognition of equine dentistry as a field of veterinary medicine is apparent in the increase in popularity of excellent quality equine dental CPD (including the BEVA/BVDA examination and the CertAVP [ED]) available to equine veterinarians and paraprofessionals worldwide.  […]