Friday evening we had a dinner "meeting" that involved about 3 hours of lecture relating to equine dentistry. We had a wonderful presenter who normally does a 3 day short course but was able to give us a condensed version that consisted of the nearly 3 hours of lecture material Friday evening, followed by 7 hours of mostly hands-on work and a little more lecture on Saturday.
A few of the key points from what was discussed Friday evening:
--The 2 main goals of equine dentistry are to minimize pain and to maintain dentition.
--Exams should be done annually, if <5yo they should be done twice a year, or more frequently with a history of oral/dental problems.
--"Floating" and "Dentistry" are not the same thing- floating is mostly to just prevent mucosal damage, whereas dentistry is a more comprehense exam and more important to the overall health of the animal.
--We covered various equine oral pathologies of the hard & soft tissues, including:
Overgrowths, bone growth disparities, maleruptions, supernumerary teeth, oligodontia, infundibular cavities, dental fractures, neoplasia of HT, dysplasia, EOTRH, periodontal disease, pulpar disease, secondary mucosal trauma, neoplasia of ST, and foreign bodies.
--Also covered was equine oral anatomy- physical and functional, and the 8 parts of an oral exam.
- 1-History
- 2-PE (including external head for symmetry)
- 3-Sedation
- 4-Placement o full mouth speculum/lavage
- 5-Visual Exam of mouth (with & without intraoral mirror)
- 6-Palpation of tooth surfaces
- 7-Periodontal probing & use of explorer
- 8-Records of findings on dental chart
Saturday morning we began with live horses (belonging to one of the supervising DVMs). In groups we got to prep the horse, go through the steps of the exam and take turns working on the teeth. I was fortunate enough to do all of the work on the 400's (the horse's lower right teeth) of the first horse. It was such a great hands-on opportunity! Especially since I will likely never do any equine dentistry ever again (I'm a small animal gal & the heavy equipment doesn't do my carpal tunnel any good!). I've even got a picture of me working away, with supervision and guidance from the horse's owner (the aforementioned vet) and the veterinary presenter. I got to wear a pretty sweet (incredibly old) headlamp, which is not visible in this photo (sorry!).
It's pretty nerve-wracking to use heavy power tools inside a living, breathing horse's mouth for the first time! Especially for somebody who has never even seen the inside of a live horse's mouth before, let alone stuck their arm in one (and is also a little terrified by horses!). Everyone had a great time and learned a ton...
Four horses were worked on during the morning and we got to see a few interesting dental problems as well as gain a great appreciation for what is normal and how good dental work should look in the end.
The afternoon brought a quick lunch break and a short lecture break that included a pretty cool video depicting oral anatomy of the horse. We also touched on floating techniques, nerve blocking, and looked at a few cases. Afterwards we concluded with some cadaver heads where we could safely practice nerve blocks, practice with some hand-float tools, and do some more oral exams.
It was a pretty long and intense wet lab, but I gained a wealth of knowledge that I would probably not have received much on (especially since I'm following a small animal track) that I can thankfully refer back to someday should I ever find myself looking at a horse- you never know!
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*I have tried to exclude names and faces to keep individuals anonymous, as well as not providing specific details from our lecture due to copyright constraints. Also, should anything here be incorrect, I am working from some quickly jotted notes that may be a little erroneous. Gotta throw my disclaimers out there ;) *