Insuring Proper Dental Treatments 

• Do Not assume that all practitioners are created equal. Just because they have a title or letters behind their name, does not ensure that they are competent at equine dentistry. Ask specifically what training they have in the equine dental field (not just anatomy, physiology, pharmacology etc.), and how many horses they have treated. Ask where they received their training and from whom. If you are not satisfied, you are probably talking to the wrong person.

• Interview your prospective practitioner. Ask them to explain to you: full mouth balance, bitseats – what they are and what their function is in the mouth, and how the TMJ can affect performance as well as eating ability.  Also discuss what effect lack of molar occlusion can have on the TMJ, the horse’s eating efficiency, as well as performance and comfort levels of the horse. If the practitioner can’t explain this to you, you are probably talking to the wrong person.

• Ask how the practitioner will perform the procedures. Do they only use power tools? Do they use a combination of power tools and hand instruments? Do they float teeth with power tools? Do they do “visual dentistry” and have to suspend the horse’s head from above while working to enable them to look into the horse’s mouth? If the practitioner only uses power tools and nothing else, you are probably talking to the wrong person. If the practitioner suspends the horse’s head from above, you are probably talking to the wrong person.

• When the practitioner is examining your horse (under sedation) ask if you can feel the teeth of the horse before they start and then again after they are finished. The sharp edges that you felt initially, should all be smooth and have a uniform radius from one end of the arcade to the other. Their teeth should feel like one unit or battery of teeth instead of individual steps. If the practitioner won’t allow you to feel the teeth, you are probably talking to the wrong person.

• Ask to see the horse’s molar occlusion before treatment and after treatment and get what you are looking at explained to you. If they can’t show you or explain what you are looking at, you are probably talking to the wrong person.

• The practitioner should have a full set of instrumentation including a full mouth speculum. Their equipment should be clean, rust free, and preferably stainless steel. A disinfectant solution should be used in all buckets. A practitioner with two floats and a rubber bucket or one power tool is probably the wrong person.

• Ask questions about your horse’s teeth, how they eat, and performance concerns. All good practitioners enjoy sharing their knowledge; the ones who don’t are probably the wrong person.

• It is up to the horse owner to distinguish good dentistry from bad dentistry, the difference is paramount to your horse. Good dentistry will produce comfort, eating efficiency, improved performance, and tooth longevity.  Bad dentistry, in a lot of cases, is worse than no dentistry. Choose wisely as it is a “Buyer Beware” market.