Why is dentistry so important for your horse?

Horses have hypsodont teeth. Unlike humans' teeth, that remain the same throughout life, equine teeth continue to grow and wear down until the tooth wears out (20-30 years of age). From 2 years of age to 4 1/2 years of age, horses shed caps (also known as loosing baby teeth) every 6 months. During this time a horse sheds 24 teeth.

A horse's teeth pulverize and crush grain with a side to side, up and down chewing motion. This circular motion creates points and malocclusions on the teeth (hooks, ramps, waves, and protrusions). Points can be painful and often cut the insides of the horse's cheeks.

Shown below is an example of a severe hook. This horse had scar tissue on the lower jaw where the hook had wore a hole over several years.

Wild horses spend 12-16 hours a day grazing on coarse forage. While chewing on grass, they also pick up sand and dirt to wear away and help keep their chewing surface smooth and correct. As a resut, our horses today are faced with difficulties such as abnormal head positioning and feeds. We don't see mustangs with their heads in buckets elevated in the middle of the desert or prairie.

Uneven biting and chewing surfaces makes it difficult for a horse to process feed and receive the nutrition it requires for peak health and performance.

A painful or unbalanced mouth with abnormalities such as wolf teeth, make the bit uncomfortable and leads to performance problems and difficulty in training or riding the horse.

Horses of every age need their teeth maintained. Horses between the ages of 2 to 4 1/2 years of age need to have dentistry done every 6 months. This is because of the rapid rate young horses teeth grow and to make sure they shed caps at the appropriate times. Horses from 5 and up need to have dentistry done once a year, to maintain the balance in the horses' mouth and therefore giving the horse more longevity.