Equine Dentistry

Introduction

For the last seven years talks and courses have been given in Mexico City, by Veterinarians and dentistry technicians in equines, coming from different countries (United States, France, Brazil, Canada and Mexico); professionals specialized in the care of the mouth of equidae, concerning manual work as well as using different motorized equipment, or better yet the combination of both, allowing veterinarians to learn and acquire the minimum training necessary to offer a professional service, benefiting not only high performance horses but also the working horse. This has contributed to a big growth in this area, much higher than the last 30 years. At the same time, we realized that in the United States, in the last eight years it has grown from a few businesses dedicated to producing specialized dentistry equipment, to at least a dozen businesses that offer alternatives in equipment, from being able to do a manual job, as well as motorized equipment to perform clean ups and teeth whitening, complete dental units, similar to those in human dentistry to clean out cavities, for setting up de amalgams on horse, etc. On the other hand, we see more scientific articles in journals related to disorders, diagnosis and treatment of the different pathologies in the oral cavity of horses. This shows how nowadays more importance is being given to this area of knowledge, due to its importance in the performance horse. It is evident that when there is more information and thus more training, clinicians are being more careful when examining the oral cavity in patients; there are probably many disorders that are being detected now that had been ignored previously, “you cannot look for what you don’t know”, for example we are now trying to detect cavities to fix them instead of waiting for them to become a problem and loosing a tooth, we look for tartar and its removal, to avoid it causing gingivitis, or if there is diastema, to try and correct it, instead of waiting to find periodontal disease.

Dentistry and orodental balance in equines is becoming more and more important all over the world. The Veterinarian who is a specialist in equine dentistry is rapidly becoming a key participant in the care and prevention in orodental problems in the horse. This has a positive influence in the overall performance of the horse. Dentistry is not new, but is currently enjoying a rediscovery process. There are bibliographic references and quite advanced dentistry tools dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. The horse has always played a key role in the life of men: as a working tool, transportation, vital to economy. This is why, care of the mouth is a necessity and a priority to optimize nutrition.

In equine practice, we find different disorders in the oral cavity, many other that we do not diagnose because of lack of knowledge or lack of attention while evaluating the mouth of our patients. Currently the tendency to not be a “general practitioner” is increasing, and to have specialized practitioners is preferred. This has launched and created new areas of research and manufacturing of specific equipment used to evaluate, diagnose and treat in all the different specialized areas. We find ourselves in a constant educating process towards our clients, trainers, grooms and veterinarians as well, so that the care and specialized evaluation of the oral cavity is advocated, and the simple getting rid of odontophytes is forgotten. [...]