Equine dentist will fill service gap at UF College of Veterinary Medicine

Hiyo, Silver! Open wide. A new doctor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine will tell you, straight from the horse’s mouth, that advanced technology has brought the field of equine dentistry into the light of day.

“Unlike the farrier, whose work is out in front for everyone to see, the work of anyone who is doing equine dentistry is literally out of sight,” said Toots Banner, D.V.M., an equine veterinary dentist recently hired by UF’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital to provide the service to clients — both on site and in the field.

“Anyone who is doing equine dentistry without a speculum and a very good light source has a very real chance of missing problems and irregularities. If you can’t see or feel these problems, how can you fix them?”

Banner said technological advances within the past 10 years have made the practice of equine dentistry much more attractive to practitioners, with the result that more veterinarians are choosing to practice in this field. Consequently, more and more horses — possibly due to enhanced overall awareness of the importance of equine dental health — are receiving routine dental care than ever before.

“In the not-too-distant past, all of the handwork involved in doing equine dental work made it a very physical job,” said Banner, who is past president of the International Association of Equine Dentistry. “Basically, you had a handle with a shaft on it and a rasp, or file, to go back and forth in the mouth. It was very hard on the hands and the shoulders of the practitioner and not very enjoyable for the horse, either, as most of the time they weren’t sedated.”

Now, however, instrumentation developed over the last decade enables equine dentists to sedate the horse, place a speculum on, put the horse’s head on a stand and shine a light on the head, allowing the practitioner to see everything inside the horse’s mouth.

Banner and other equine veterinarians now have at their disposal motorized devices with special designed guards to protect the oral cavity from abrasions and irritation. “These tools are quicker, cleaner and more,” Banner said, adding that they can be used for everything from basic procedures such as “floating,” or blunting the sharp points that form on the teeth, to more advanced procedures such as balancing the chewing surface’s “hooks, ramps and waves” — the peaks and valleys that have occurred over years of tooth eruption — and even tooth extractions.

A normal adult horse can have as many as 44 teeth, 32 of which are located beyond the front teeth, or incisors. Older horses are frequently the ones with the most severe problems, since it’s likely that they have never had their mouths balanced, Banner said.

“It’s like in people,” Banner said. “Some come in with perfect teeth, and some are an absolute mess.”

Horses should have the same complete exam as a family dentist performs on people — “with a light and your mouth open, prior to beginning work,” he said. “Just as you don’t wait until a horse’s shoes are off before you call a farrier, you should make sure your horse has a regular examination at least once a year.”

A horse’s teeth should be checked within a couple of weeks of birth, said Banner, who charges approximately $125 per routine visit, which includes sedation. A typical examination lasts about an hour.

So if horse owners can’t see inside their horse’s mouths, how can they tell if a horse has a potentially serious dental problem? A key sign is when horses start dropping their feed, Banner said. In addition, horses who have difficulty keeping their heads straight while being ridden could have dental irregularities.

Angie Bryant, a sales representative with Seminole Feed in Gainesville, had this problem with her horse last fall. She called Banner.

“My horse just wasn’t setting his head right,” she said. “He kept fighting the bit. The last think most people would think of was that he might have a problem with his teeth, and the only reason I thought about it is that I’ve been to a few equine dental seminars.”

After Banner arrived, sedated the horse and showed her what his mouth looked like, Bryant was in shock.

“I would never have imagined what I saw,” she said. “The teeth looked like Alpine mountains — very sharp and pointed. I just wondered how my horse could eat.”

Following Banner’s examination, Bryant let the horse rest a few days before riding him again. She was amazed at the difference in the quality of the ride.

“He was able to set his head and get on the bit and the ride was so smooth,” she said. “It was like going from a VW to a Cadillac.”

“In fact, the first case Dr. Banner treated at UF was one of our own hospitalized patients, referred to Dr. Banner by the attending clinician,” Green said. “We are most pleased to be offering this new service in our hospital.

“Equine dentistry has advanced to the point that patient care is enhanced by having an individual with special interest and expertise in equine dentistry. Dr. Banner has both.”

For more information or to schedule an appointment with Banner, call (352) 392-4700, ext. 5648.