Equine Dentistry

Why do horses need their teeth rasping?

Many people are unaware that horses require their teeth rasping and so here are some of the reasons as to why dental checks are so important.

Firstly, unlike human teeth, horses teeth are constantly erupting into the horse’s mouth. For a horse to eat, it needs to move its lower jaw, in a circular movement, to grind the food against the upper teeth. This process breaks down the food so the horse can digest it. This grinding motion naturally wears down the horse’s teeth. For a horse to have good dentition, the rate of wear of teeth due to chewing needs to be equal to the rate of eruption into the mouth.

Secondly, some people ask why do our horses teeth need rasping when wild horses seem to cope fine without any dental work. However we need to appreciate that the domesticated horse has a very different lifestyle to that of the wild horse. We have completely changed their diet, routine and eating habits. Horses were designed to graze almost constantly on rough forage and this ensures the teeth are worn down at the correct rate and prevents excess growth. Wild horses spend much longer time periods grazing (approximately 16-20 hours per day), compared to our domesticated horses, which only spend on average 8 hours grazing per day.

Also we feed the domesticated horse fine hay/haylage, processed hard feeds and turn it out onto soft pasture, which is much easier for the teeth to grind up. Both of these factors result in the teeth being worn down at a much slower rate, than in the wild, and this leads to poor dentition, which can affect the horse’s health and performance.

Thirdly, the upper jaw is wider than the lower jaw. So when the upper and lower teeth are grinding together during eating, not all the grinding surface of each tooth is in contact. Therefore, horses develop sharp edges on the cheek (buccal) side of the upper molars and the tongue (lingual) side of the lower molars, as these areas are unopposed by teeth on the opposite side. The extent of these sharp points depends on the horse’s diet, feeding routine, age and length of time between treatments. These points can become incredibly sharp and as the horses cheeks are so close to the teeth this leads to the cheeks becoming cut and ulcerated. As this abrasion is continuous, the ulcers can’t begin to heal until these sharp enamel points are removed.

To ensure your horse is comfortable and to help prevent dental problems, it is recommended to get your horses teeth checked every six months by a vet or equine dental technician (EDT). This should maintain good dentition and control over eruption. It will also highlight any dental problems so they can be treated before the condition worsens.

All horses, ponies and donkeys of any age should have regular dental checks. The first dental examination should be carried out as a yearling, so that the EDT can check everything in the mouth is normal and that the teeth are erupting correctly. This will also get the horse used to having the gag on and its mouth examined, which should make the first rasp a more pleasurable experience. At two years old, horses should have another dental examination and should then be rasped for the first time. If a horse is going to have wolf teeth, they will have erupted by this stage and this is a good time to have them removed before bitting issues start to arise. Older/retired horses still require dental checks to ensure that they stay comfortable eating throughout their lives.