08/06/2026
Why is equine dentistry so important?
There are people out there who do dentistries yearly, some who do it every other year, and some who only do it when somethings off with their horse. Every owner has their way of doing things and that's their deal. I'll admit that I used to do dentals on my horses every other year before I knew what I know now, and now they will all be done yearly going forward. Doing dentals on your horse isn't just to make them eat better like most people believe, its to help them out performance wise as well as prolonging the longevity of their teeth. Horses teeth continously grow up until their mid 20's, so if some teeth are too long and are grinding away at the corresponding tooth for a long time, that will cause teeth to expire before they really should.
There is a difference between floating, just knocking the points off, and equilibration, touching the occlusal surfaces and making sure everything lines up and grinds right. Lots of vets out there will knock the points off and yes, the horses can chew better because they aren't gouging their cheeks or tongue because of the points, but they aren't touching anything else and making the performance or longevity part easier or better for the horse.
There are many malocclusions a horses mouth can have. Hooks, ramps, waves, transverse ridges, points, ventral curve, diagonals, that's just naming a few of them. Each one has their thing that causes different problems.
I'm lucky enough to have some great clients who listen to my recommendations and get their horses scheduled for dentistries if I feel they need them. Here's a good example as to why they're so important, even with the young ones.
Meet Jack, he is a 2yo mustang who has never had a dentistry. His owners asked if I could start putting some more rides on him and get him going slowly, so of course I said yes. Most people would think, "oh he's only 2 so he doesn't need his teeth done for another couple years," but I asked that they get him in for a dentistry before I do too much riding. Why? Because the young ones can have wolf teeth that need pulled, major points, transverse ridges, and some other malocclusions so they got that scheduled ASAP and I hauled him in today to get that done.
Jack had some pretty significant points, had started creating hooks on his top front cheek teeth which was caused by an overbite on his incisors, despite his young age. Dr. Sundholm was able to take care of that no problem and was able to fix something that could have easily been a problem really soon.
Because Jack had an equilibration dentistry as a pretty young 2yo and he still has lots of growing to do, hopefully his overbite which was causing the hooks corrects itself and he won't have that later in life. Hooks can be a big problem because they can cause the horse not to be able to collect as easy because their mouth is getting hung up on that long tooth. The Dr also adds in what's called bit seats, rounding the front of all 4 first cheek teeth so the fleshy tissue doesn't get pinched between the first tooth and the bit.
Since Jack's mouth got all fixed up, his riding will be easier because he won't get hung up anymore because of those hooks, the bit will be a lot comfier now that he has bit seats, and the longevity of his teeth will be better so long as he has yearly dentistries. Yes, his teeth are always loosing caps or coming in between the first couple weeks of life up until about 5 years old, but we have made everything better for him going forward.
