Equine Dental Treatments

 When we arrive to treat your horse we will first speak with you, the owner, in order to ascertain from you how the horse is riding and what issues have been identified.  Please see the page on signs that a horse my need dental treatment for common problems.  Once we have had a detailed chat about any problems you have identified we will then perform an external examination, with you present.  This involves a visual and physical examination around the horses mouth and head, taking a note of any abnormalities as well as allowing you to see or feel them too.

This external examination allows your horse to become more familiar with Mark and allows him to judge how well the animal will respond to the following internal examinations and potential treatments, he will of course, liase with the owner on this point.

Once the initial examination of your horse or pony has been completed we will continue with a detailed internal examination, this uses a full mouth speculum to gently and painlessly open your horses mouth, then utilising a head torch we will inspect the whole mouth and all of your horses teeth.  Again at this point we will liase with the owner and point out all areas of interest or concern and allow you the opportunity to feel inside the animals mouth and touch the sharp or damaged areas of the teeth.

Should the owner be happy for us to continue we will the begin work to remove areas which could be causing pain to your horse or pony.  Firstly, I will remove the sharp enamel edges from the molars (the large flat teeth at the back of the horses mouth).  The sharp enamel points can pierce and lacerate your horses mouth and tongue and cause significate pain to your animal, left untreated these wounds can become infected or become otherwise complicated leading to additional treatments and pain for your horse and additional costs for you.

We will then move on and remove any excessive transverse ridges on the occlusal surface of the teeth, overgrowths either at the back or front of the teeth will then be removed as will any abnormalities or malocclusions (where the teeth do not meet as they should).

Finally bit seats (rounding of the first molars) will be introduced these protect the soft tissue from damage and pain caused by the bit.

On completion of the work a full dental chart will be provided thus ensuring a copy is kept both for myself and by the client.

Does my horse need sedating?

All horses are individual, some horses enjoy the experience, some tolerate the procedures and a minority do not. We have found that on average 1: 150 horses require sedation.  There are unscrupulous individuals that are not qualified vets that will sedate clients’ horses, this is illegal and potentially life threatening, we strongly advise you never allow any unqualified person to ever administer any drugs they are not trained and qualified to use.

If a horse requires sedation the owner can organise vet sedation or can purchase dormosedan gel which they can personally administer to their horse, normally once the horse is sedated the vet is able to leave allowing us to continue to work on your horses dental needs and saving you from increased cost of prolonged vets attendance fees.