Interesting talk on dentistry

chunky monkey

Well-Known Member
May 2, 2007
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I've just got back from a lovely talk on horse dentistry. A friend of mine booked me a ticket as I went with them last year to a talk arranged by there vets. It was free so I was happy to go. I always think you might learn something important about the care of your own. The talk was great although some of it was technical terms so went a bit over my head and in one ear out the other.
The second half of the talk was really interesting. Read no further if your screamish. I'm not sure how I felt. The only way I could look at it was 'thank god it's not my horses head on the table.' They had a recently PTS horses head on the table and the vet put a camera into the mouth to show us the teeth and what he was looking for. Sharp edges etc. Where the teeth were not aligned and where food was trapped and where there was dark pigment on the cheek wall indicating where the sharp edges could be causing ulcers.
We then went through and could get hands on with several other horse heads where we could glove up and feel where they had rasped one side of the mouth and the other side wasn't.
They had an older horse head who literally had several teeth missing.
They had needles in one head to show where they insert for nerve blocks. I never realised that there was holes a in the horses face on the skull. They also cut one head in half and you could see the brain and connective tissue and all the jaw and bone structure. It was horrible but at the same time quite fascinating.
We also watched them scoping a live horse who had recently had medical problems with his airway. The recent surgery had complications and had caused food to become trapped and was now going into the lungs. Sadly the horse has got to under go further surgery to stop this complication. It was interesting to see the yuck in his passageway.
I did take a picture of the horses head cut in half but I don't think I will post that.
It was a very interesting evening and whilst it wasn't for the faint hearted I can certainly say that I will now look at my boys faces in a whole new way.
 
That's my idea of a good night out :p I love the talks our vets put on, it can't hurt to learn new stuff, even if its not applicable to me right now I might be glad of it some day.
Do post the picture, or maybe pm it to me? I hate to see cadavers but at the same time its truly fascinating and theres so much to be learnt from them.
 
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That sounded extremely interesting and informative. I am very keen on learning about horse dentistry - I watch and learn as much as I can from our vet. Storm has gaps which need picking and flushing a lot more and it was interesting to see how much difference had been made with the use of filler to let it heal etc.
The scoping sounded interesting too - poor horse getting food stuck like that, hopefully it can be put right?
 
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