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Equine Dental Care
Horses' teeth grow continuously until some time between the ages of 25 and 30. Grass, their natural food, contains silica
which is an abrasive and which constantly wears down the horse's teeth. The fibers of heavier grasses require a bit of
grinding on the part of the horse. Additionally the horse reaches down to bite off grass and then raises his head to chew
which changes his jaw position constantly. A horse living on natural grass will be more likely to naturally polish off the
surfaces of his molars into a level. Thus the horse's dental apparatus is pretty well adapted to his natural diet.
In order to efficiently grind their food, horses' upper molars are spaced a little farther apart than their lower teeth. While
important in the wild, this offset can produce problems in the domestic horse. Horses on alfalfa and less fibrous feeds
tend to chew less and the material which they are eating is generally less abrasive. Accordingly there will be surfaces
which do not get polished off evenly. Raised edges may appear along the edges of the molars; typically along the
outside of the upper set and the inside of the lower set. When these "unground surfaces" get large the horse cannot
rock his lower jaw laterally as he chews due to his teeth being locked between the opposing ridges. Thus the problem
self propagates, the ridges slowly appear larger as they are no longer being worn down, and as the horse rubs these
ridges when chewing, he's actually wearing down the sides of these ridges into sharp points.
Call: Gary Maston at Maston's Equine Dentistry to be sure your horse is getting the proper dental care!
304-455-6227
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