Horse Teeth And Oral Cavity – An Introduction

This subject is divided into sections organized by teeth (incisors, cheek teeth, canines), the oral cavity and the skull pertaining to the teeth. There is also the aging project where I took about 8 to 10 horses with documented ages in groups from 3 years to 30+ years (about 225 horses). I photographed the incisors from both sides, from the front and from the open mouth onto the lower occlusal surfaces (about 900 photos). These are grouped into views from all ages and also into ages with each view per age group. Interesting results were seen but basically I now only age horses by their teeth into 4 groups: young, young adult, adult and senior. Being any more accurate than this is not feasible though you can be close.
There may be a lot of detail here that will interest those that are interested in horse teeth while being too much detail for others. Remember this – it is NOT how sharp the teeth are but it is the horse’s perception of oral pain that will determine if the horse benefits from routine dental care. There is also a basic dentistry course for horse owners available that has the essentials. I also offer a school to teach people who would be legal in their state (the laws vary) to become capable in floating teeth.
Dentistry in horses is my specialty. I have been looking and feeling the teeth and mouth of horses since 1983 and providing dental care exclusively to horses since 1998. There are a lot of pictures in these topics. However I have formed thoughts backed by experience and results which differ from the new thoughts and theories proposed by reasonable people involved with dentistry in horses. Therefore, this section may have some differing opinions and fresh thoughts that counter what you read elsewhere.
Unfortunately no other person or organization has asked me to debate or discuss my views as people in today’s society are afraid of competing thoughts. Just look at politics if you don’t believe me. Apparently equine dentistry is as divisive as politics. As my practice continues to grow, the overwhelming reason for calling me is because of the way I work with horses and the results I get. This is better off being discussed elsewhere but understand that what I discuss here is based on over 70,000 horses that I have worked on plus the blessing of a veterinary education that taught me how to think and probe for better answers.
The purpose of this subject and all of topics on this site is to help you see things about horses more clearly and help us all become advocates for their horse.