Dentals for Days - CEC

Hello again! My latest summer adventure has been doing a dental. One of the technicians here at the clinic needed a dental done on her horse and allowed me to practice the technique! I was the official "doctor" on the case and helping me with the dental was Dr. Lauren Fischer from the Cleveland Equine Clinic. Dr. Fischer had walked me through dentals exams in previous cases, but this was my first time doing the float.

I am now comfortable aging young horses by their teeth, distinguishing between deciduous and permanent teeth, and identifying some abnormalities in the mouth such as ramps, infundibular carries, and steps. A ramp is where just the edge of one tooth is taller than the rest of the tooth and forms a "bridge" between the two teeth. Horses have teeth made up of several layers. In the center of horse teeth, there are layers of enamel and cementum that form invaginations on the surface that horses use to grind food. Infundibular caries commonly form when there isn't enough cementum produced, which causes the center of the tooth to decay. A step is when one entire tooth is taller than the surrounding teeth. This can happen if the horse is not chewing food properly and that tooth doesn't wear down with the rest of the teeth.

My exam started with a full physical exam to make sure that the horse could handle being sedated. When the horse was sedated, I palpated the temporomandibular joint and both jaw lines to make sure that there weren't any abnormalities. Then I placed a speculum in the mouth so that the mouth was held open for my oral exam and float. Putting the speculum in the mouth is similar to asking the horse to take a bit. Before looking in the mouth I washed it out with some diluted chlorhexidine solution to remove any food that may be in the cheeks.

The oral exam starts by simply looking in the mouth. I am looking for things such as impacted food, callouses on the cheeks, sharp points, steps, ramps, and fractured teeth. There were some callouses on the cheeks, indicating that the teeth had formed some sharp edges and were cutting the cheeks. The next step was to reach my hand into the mouth and feel the edges of the teeth. This horse's teeth had moderate points on them. I then used a pick to feel for gaps in the teeth. The last part of my exam was to use a mirror to observe the grinding, or occlusal, portion of the teeth. Everything looked as it should and we were ready for the power tools!

Using the float was definitely an experience. You have to be able to use the float in your dominant and non-dominant hand. Keeping the correct amount of pressure on the teeth was difficult to do. It's also really easy to bump the incisors or accidentally "stick" the float to the magnetic light. All of these little bumps affect the cooperation of the patient. However, I got through it and Dr. Fischer only had to touch up a couple of the back teeth! It was an incredible opportunity to have gotten to perform a dental from start to finish. I'm feeling more confident about my dental exam each time I help with a dental and could not be more excited about these new clinical skills! Until next time!

Liz Ritchie