Dental Problems
Signs of Dental Problems
• Abnormal change in behaviour (dropping food, head tilting, excessive salivation)
• Refusing certain types of food
• Refusing food completely
• Eating slowly
• A bad odour from the mouth
• Quidding (rolling hay into balls then dropping them)
• Head shaking
• Loss of weight / condition
• Packing food into the cheeks
• Food / hay beign passed through in droppings
• Swellings under the jaw, side of face or above eyes
• Tilting the head whilst being ridden
• Unable to ride in an outline / on the bit / slow to make transitions
• Chewing on the bit
• Bad behavior
It is highly recommended that you have your horses teeth looked at by a qualified person every 6 months from birth through to old age to correct and prevent dental problems. Not having regular dental care could lead to many problems that will not correct themselves.
Dental Problems Commonly Assosiated with the Incisors
• OVERBITE OR PARROT MOUTH-upper incisors protruding over the front of the lower incisors.Hooks and ramps on the back molars can move the jaw forward,resulting in an overbite.Incisors will need reducing and molar abnormalities will need correcting.Without treatment it will only worsen.
• UNDERBITE OR SOUR MOUTH-lower incisors protrude past upper incisors.Again,hooks and ramps etc may move the jaw forward.Both prevent the jaw from moving freely and the longer it is left untreated,the more severe it will become.
• VENTRAL CURVATURE(SMILE)-outer edges of the lower incisors grow long relative to the outer edges of upper incisors.This can occur due to many problems within the mouth and can cause many more.It can be corrected by filing down the teeth to give a more levelled look.
• DORSAL CURVATURE(FROWN)-OUTER EDGES OF UPPER INCISORS GROW LONG RELATIVE TO THE outer edges of lower incisors. This is the opposite of the "smile" and the causes are of the same nature.
• OFFSET(DIAGONAL BITE)-upper incisors on 1 side of the mouth are very long and the lower incisors if the opposite side are long causing teeth to meet in a diagonal line rather than a straight line. They will need cutting and filing to be corrected.
• MISSING INCISOR-a horse may lose a tooth due to trauma, abnormality or may never erupt. The missing tooth's partner will overgrow into the space, as there is no tooth to stop it. This will prevent the jaw from moving freely and difficulty chewing and will need to be filed down on a regular basis.
Dental Problems with the Pre-Molars and Molars
• STEPPED MOUTH/STEP-A distinct bump in the molar arcade where 1 or more teeth are longer than the other teeth.Commonly found when the opposing tooth is missing, capped or slow to erupt.
• RAMP-a ski-jump like appearance in the molars which can occur anywhere, front, back, upper or lower.
• SHEAR MOUTH/OFFSET-where molars are of an extreme angle.
• WAVE-The entire arcade has the appearance of a wave making the arcade uneven.
• ACCENTUATED TRANSVERSE RIDGES(ATR)-all the molars have side to side,up and down pointed ridges that form when the jaw is not aligned preventing even wear on the teeth.