Equine Dentistry Vincent Ferry

Equine Dentistry Vincent Ferry Equine Dentist specialized in horse Biomechanics and mouth balance. My focus, Help horses Healthies, Happies and Comfortables For further explanation, ASK me.

Comfort Equine Dentistry addresses balance in the equine's dentition, thus allowing fluid biomechanics, efficient digestion and visceral motility, as well as correct neuro-input and response. This includes balance of occlusional contact of the teeth in a manner that is anatomically correct to the individual horse. This restores function and mobility to the TMJ and provides stability that allows fo

r neutral positioning of the stomatognathic position. This is accomplished by removing the minimal amount of pathology required to provide maximum results. Restoring neutral biomechanics and natural motion of the jaw from side to side and forward/backward allows freedom of movement of the mandible (jaw). This is important for mastication (chewing) and digestion. The movement of the jaw is directly connected to the movement of the whole horse. To function properly, the horse's teeth are supposed to wear at the same rate in which they erupt. Unfortunately, most domestic horse feed is not abrasive enough to properly maintain the incisors. In addition, horses that are fed hay, which is pre-cut, do not reap the wearing benefits of naturally cropping grasses. The results of our domestic feeding practices are incisors that are too long and incorrectly angled. The most correct length and angle of a horse's incisors can be seen in a five-year old horse whose caps have all been shed. When the incisors get too long and the angle too steep, it changes the position of the jaw where it attaches to the skull. This attachment is called the TMJ or temporo-mandibular joint. This change in position affects the movement of the jaw, resulting in dental pathology such as uneven wear, rims, points, hooks, as well as stomatognathic dysfunction. Proprioception

The TMJ has a large concentration of proprioceptors, which are sensory receptors. Proprioceptors are also found in other joints, ligaments, muscles, tendons and the hooves. The function of proprioceptors is to detect the movement or position of the body or limb. When there is imbalance in the musculoskeletal system and/or lack of motion, the propriocetors act as sensors, sending this information to the brain. When the body detects these imbalances, it responds by forcing other parts of the body to compensate. When other systems are forced to compensate, they become over taxed and may also begin to fail. In the equine mouth, proprioceptors are affected by dental pathology- whether it is naturally occurring or human created. The response to the imbalance is muscular, skeletal, and/or neurologic. Motion of the jaw is affected as well as balance of the TMJ. Why Balance of the TMJ is so Important

Balance of the TMJ is a crucial component in the physiological balance of the whole horse. Balance and comfort of the TMJ is my focus. Abnormal pressure and rotation of the TMJ causes oral biomechanical function to be lost. This lack of proper motion in the jaw then creates an improper biomechanical posturing throughout the body. When a horse's mouth is out of balance, the body will follow suit. In turn, problems in the body can cause TMJ imbalance and dental pathology.

*Wave Correction
*Hook & Ramp Removal
*Canine Tooth Reduction
*Incisor Reduction & Realingment
*Whole Mouth Rebalancing
*Bit Seats
*Horse Cribbing
*Cavity
*Extractions wolf teeth. Correccion de las olas,
Remocion de ganchos y rampas, reduccion y redondeado de caninos, realiniamiento y balance de incisivos,
Completo balance y equilibrado de arcadas molares,
Realizacion de asientos del freno,
Extracciones dientes de lobo.

**Carousel: Importance of Dental Maintenance for Your Horses**Slide 1:**Keep Your Horse's Smile Bright and Healthy! šŸ˜„**A...
06/27/2023

**Carousel: Importance of Dental Maintenance for Your Horses**

Slide 1:
**Keep Your Horse's Smile Bright and Healthy! šŸ˜„**
A regular dental maintenance routine is crucial for your horse's overall health and well-being. Let's explore why maintaining their dental hygiene is so important.

Slide 2:
**Chewing Right, Living Right! šŸŒ¾**
Proper dental care ensures your horse can chew their food effectively, leading to improved digestion and nutrient absorption. Let's prioritize their oral health for a happy and healthy life.

Slide 3:
**Performance Starts with Dental Wellness. šŸ†**
A healthy mouth contributes to your horse's performance. Regular dental check-ups and treatments prevent discomfort, allowing them to excel in their training and competitions. Let's unlock their full potential!

Slide 4:
**Say "Neigh" to Dental Issues! šŸ˜Š**
Regular dental maintenance prevents common problems like sharp enamel points and dental abnormalities, keeping your horse pain-free and content. Let's prioritize their comfort and well-being.

Slide 5:
**Early Detection Saves Smiles! šŸ”**
Regular dental exams help catch issues early, such as hooks and uneven wear. By addressing these problems promptly, we can prevent more severe dental issues down the road. Let's stay ahead of any potential problems!

Slide 6:
**Trust Equine Dental Specialists. šŸ“**
For top-notch dental care, rely on certified equine dentists. They possess the expertise and tools needed to ensure your horse's dental health remains in excellent condition. Your horse will thank you!

Maintain your horse's oral health from bit to bridle! šŸŽšŸ’™

3 Things you can check on your own horse: 1. Facial Symmetry If you horseā€™s head is crooked this could be an indica...
05/12/2023

3 Things you can check on your own horse:

1. Facial Symmetry

If you horseā€™s head is crooked this could be an indicator of some imbalances in the mouth. The skin and muscles in a horse are all connected by fascia. This fascia is like a sheet of fiber that can be easily moved and stretched. If the facial features are not even, but higher on one side or the other, or one side is bigger than the other consider it feedback from the mouth. When there is pathology in the mouth (overgrowth, hooks, steep ramps, etc) it has the ability to move the fascia around the face as the skull starts to change itā€™s form to compensate for teeth that need attention.

2. Incisor Bite

Over bite? Under bite? Teeth that bulge or bow? Jagged edges or lines? You have a big problem. Once the bite is compensated from being smooth, even and slightly angled it starts to negatively affect the molars, which affect the TMJ. The temporal mandibular joint houses many vital qualities. If that joint is tight and sore from teeth being neglected it wonā€™t have proper mobility. The TMJ is the first joint (going cranial to caudal) in a horses skeleton. Consider balance, vision, and ability to eat at stake.

3. Chewing

Dropping moderate amounts of grain, chunks of half-chewed hay, and lots of foam and drool to be trouble. Itā€™s not that your horse is a lazy or fast eater. If your horse canā€™t masticate in a sideways oval type direction then you are wasting money feeding him, he is not getting nutrients he needs because it never grinds up into a digestible form, and his gut health is at stake because stomach acid becomes his own enemy. Anything other than peaceful/rhythmic chewing should be cause for concern. The incisors rips, and the molar glide/grind down the forage ā€“ if this method is altered donā€™t expect to have a happy horse.

*4. TMJ check (bonus) *

TMJ sensitivity can be checked by standing on the side of your horse and placing each hand on either side of his face. If you take 2 fingers and press in on the zygomatic arch with moderate pressure you can test the sensitivity of the jaw. A horse that thrusts his head upward, tilts his face to the side or shyā€™s away is telling you there is a PROBLEM.



If you can evaluate these things and your horse gives you feed back that he might be uncomfortable your horseā€™s teeth evaluated by an Equine Dentist specializing in Whole Mouth Mechanics and Balance? A great dentist will be able to tell you a lot from a simple exam, without even opening up the mouth.

Sharp enamel pointsSharp edges known as enamel points will naturally develop over time as the horses teeth erupt. These ...
06/18/2021

Sharp enamel points

Sharp edges known as enamel points will naturally develop over time as the horses teeth erupt. These sharp enamel points will often cause soreness, lacerations and ulcers to the sides of the cheeks and to the tongue. Often horses with sores from these sharp points will find it painful to chew and they will give up and spit out a half chewed ball of hay. This is called quidding and is unfortunately a common occurrence. With routine dental treatments the points will not become sharp and the horse will not suffer these problems.

Dental issues and equine performanceYour usually soft-in-the-mouth, responsive gelding has started throwing his head in ...
05/13/2020

Dental issues and equine performance

Your usually soft-in-the-mouth, responsive gelding has started throwing his head in the air when you pick up the reins or ask him to collect. While the behavior might be frustrating for you as a rider, it could be just as frustrating for him: His teeth might hurt. Anytime a horse shows a sudden change or resistance when working with a bit in his mouth, you should have your veterinarian check his teeth.

A horseā€™s teeth are crucial not only for proper chewing and nutrition but also for proper performance. Dental problems can be quite painful and, in turn, can cause horses to exhibit certain performance-inhibiting behaviors. Often these problems are subtle or not even recognized as related to the teeth.

Sharp Enamel Points
Most dental problems that translate into performance issues are conditions that cause pain. The most prevalent one injures the soft tissues of the mouth.

Normal wear of teeth can lead to sharp points. These are probably the most common problem, since the lower jaw is about 30% narrower than the upper jaw. Because of this disparity, the outside edges of the upper teeth and the inside edges of the lower teeth donā€™t wear away as fast as the rest of the surface during chewing, leaving very sharp points of enamel.

Horses need a certain amount of exposed enamel to grind up food. In the wild, those sharpened projections donā€™t create much problem, but when we put tack on the horseā€™s face and a bit in the mouth, this changes things.

Headgear such as bits, nosebands, and cavessons can place direct pressure on soft tissues that wouldnā€™t otherwise be subject to them.

Sharp points particularly affect horses that hold tension in their jaw muscles, either when ridden or stabledā€”similar to people who habitually clench their jaw. Thus, veterinarians perform routine dental care with two goals in mind: maintain dental health and provide comfort for the horse.

Routine dental care involves floating (rasping), smoothing off those sharp points. Sharp top teeth can lacerate the cheek tissue; sharp bottom teeth can lacerate the tongue. The horseā€™s tongue is huge and long, nearly filling the oral cavity when the horseā€™s mouth is closed. There is no place for that tongue to go to get away from ā€¦ sharp points on the teeth if the mouth is being held closed by tack.

Regular dental care to remove sharp points can help eliminate resistance behaviors such as mouth-gaping, jaw-moving, or sticking out the tongue when being ridden.

Horses are very tough animals and very stoic. They often keep doing their job and tend to keep eating, unless there is a very serious problem in the mouth. It has to be very serious, or a mechanical impossibility, for them to stop eating. Sometimes performance-related issues that are dental in origin can be quite subtle and almost impossible to confirm.

Malocclusions
A horse whose jaws and teeth donā€™t align

Some malocclusions, such as hooks that accompany wave mouth, can impede normal jaw motion during under saddle work. When the rider goes to collect the horse and asks him to flex at the poll, for instance, the hooks hinder movement in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ, which allows the horse to open and shut his mouth) between the skull and the first neck vertebrae, right in front of the poll.

Normally, when a horse flexes at the poll, the angle between the head and neck changes, causing the lower jaw to slide forward. If anything blocks that movement, such as hooks on the molars, and the horse canā€™t open his mouth enough to create space to free them, the jaws essentially lock together, the lower jaw canā€™t slide forward, and the horse canā€™t flex at the poll.

Trying to force him to flex may create pain in the TMJ joint. This problem can generally be alleviated with proper dental care and by not forcing the horse to keep his mouth shut.

A horse whose mouth is not forcibly closed when ridden can move his jaws to adjust their position and stay comfortable. In this case, the horse might not exhibit any performance problems, even though he may have hooks.

In other words, some horses simply continue to do their job no matter what. They have a high pain tolerance or an especially stoic personality and continue performing in spite of a dental problem other horses might not tolerate.

02/11/2020

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Saddle Placement and BioMechanic Don't place the saddle too far forward, on top of the shoulderblade.So many riders are ...
11/05/2018

Saddle Placement and BioMechanic

Don't place the saddle too far forward, on top of the shoulderblade.

So many riders are terrified of placing the saddle too far back. Some prevalent myth of the sensitivity of the kidneys or equal usually scares them to obedience. And this is truly bad for the horse.

To begin with, I'd like to explain that the kidneys of the horse are about 4 inches below the surface of the back. If the saddle is pressing there, you need another saddle. Now, the loins are sensitive, sure. The area around the whirl is quite soft on a horse since the horse has no true ribs there. So you need to look out if you have a horse with a short back.

The thing is, that the horse will start to have problems with the back under the rear end of the saddle, if you put the saddle too far forward. Any well fitting saddle will lean backwards if placed on top of the shoulder blades, too far forward on the withers.

Gusseted panels add insult to injury.

The tilt will cause the saddle to bridge between the shoulders and the area under the back of the panels. This will increase the pressure at these points, and added to this, the rider will weigh the saddle further back since it slopes back and the rider slides back against the cantle. Gusseted panels tend to add insult to injury.

2 Inches Behind the Shoulder
The placement of the saddle tree on the horse's back

The saddle has two points at the front of its tree, to help the saddle retain it's shape to keep the withers free from the pressure of the saddle. This pressure instead lands on the sides of the withers, behind the shoulderblades. These, and the rest of the underside of the saddle are well upholstered into the panels of the saddle and should not become pressurepoints as such, but the fact remains, that the saddle is built on an immobile skeleton with this shape.

The saddle is placed too far forward blocking the shoulder blades.

If the saddle is placed with these points on top of the shoulderblades or too near behind them, they will rub against the shoulderblades with every movement of the frontlegs. The forward and backward movement of the shoulderblades happens because the muscles under the saddle pull them back to advance the limb, and the shoulderblades and muscles will slide in under the saddle points and increase the pressure under the saddle. This area will become sore and the horse will be reluctant to move scopey with his shoulders. This hindrance will have repercussions throughout the back and the horse can end up with pain and injury anywhere. Or become girthy and buck riders off.

Learn how a balanced mouth can help improve your horseā€™s quality of life as well as boost his performance under saddle.D...
10/15/2018

Learn how a balanced mouth can help improve your horseā€™s quality of life as well as boost his performance under saddle.

Does your horse

have trouble holding his head straight when ridden,
have difficulty bending to the left or right,
chew on the bit or excessively or turn his head when consuming grain,
eat slowly or drop a lot of hay out of his mouth when eating,
or act head shy or resist when receiving oral deworming paste?

These and many other behaviors could be signs that your horse is in need of dental care from a qualified and experienced professional.

Sharp Enamel Points

The most commonly addressed issue in a horseā€™s mouth is sharp enamel points on the premolars and molars. On the upper teeth, they are located on the side of the teeth nearest the cheek and on the lower teeth, theyā€™re on the side of the teeth nearest the tongue. When sharp enough, these points can result in trauma to the tissues of the mouth, commonly called ulceration. The process of floating teeth is the act of using a grinding tool to smooth off these points. In my experience, horses tend to demonstrate specific behaviors while chewing and being ridden when they have these sharp points, such as:

turn their heads sideways or open their mouths and stretch them when eating.

show some degree of resistance to the bit, especially when the noseband is tight.

flip their heads or excessively chew on the bit.

A horse may also have a restricted chewing motion if there is a painful area within his mouth or head or if there is a congenital defect or neurological issue. In my experience, the most common balance issue that causes restricted chewing is the presence of a ramp at the back of the mouth.

There is clinical evidence that restricted chewing motion or chewing on only one side of the mouth on a consistent basis will result in asymmetric chewing muscles on the outside of the horseā€™s head as well as a potential for pain around the temporomandibular joint, although the latter has not been proven scientifically. In my experience, horses with restricted chewing motion usually have a resistance to bending or picking up a specific lead when being ridden. I have found that many of these horses receive regular chiropractic, massage or acupuncture treatments, but few show full benefit from these treatments until their mouths are properly addressed.

An excellent way to give your horse the best opportunity for a comfortable, efficient set of teeth is to have them properly examined at an appropriate interval.

09/26/2018

Thank you Ryan Bainer for use my service, was a pleasure to work your horses in your barn today.
Please leave a review in my review section here or on GOOGLE.

What is EOTRH Syndrome?Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis, also known as EOTRH, is a syndrome in ...
09/22/2018

What is EOTRH Syndrome?

Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis, also known as EOTRH, is a syndrome in horses that results in resorptive lesions of the incisors and sometimes canine teeth. It is usually gradual in onset, though often isnā€™t diagnosed until quite extensive lesions are present. Most commonly it is a condition of older horses (15+), though we have seen it in horses as young as 13.

While this syndrome has probably existed for many years, it has only recently been properly identified and named. Diagnosis is typically made through radiographs of the incisors. This is the only way to know definitively how many teeth are affected, and how severe the lesions are. We currently do not know the underlying cause for the syndrome. Because of this, there is no known treatment at this time to help prevent this from happening. The treatment for affected teeth is extraction based on staging of lesions present radiographically.

As the disease progresses, the roots of the incisors (and sometimes canines) start to resorb, or basically dissolve. This is an inflammatory process. Some horses also develop hypercementosis, which is an excessive buildup of cementum (calcified tissue) on the roots of one or more teeth. This process can give the appearance of bulb-like swellings around the roots of the affected teeth. Unfortunately, as the disease progresses affected teeth eventually start to loosen and become painful. As further resorption occurs, some horses may even fracture off weakened teeth. Many of these teeth become infected as well, as the roots continue to degrade. This can sometimes present with small red ā€œdotsā€ visible above the gum line of the incisors, or even small pimple-like draining tracts in this same area.

Many older horses are fairly stoic, and donā€™t always exhibit obvious outward signs of oral pain until the clinical disease is quite progressed. As severe changes occur, these horses can start to lose weight and go off feed. Some horses will start to refuse biting down on treats or carrots, and some will quit grazing due to pain in their incisors. As the disease becomes advanced, some horses may exhibit irritable behaviors when being bridled or ridden. Our goal is to avoid this from happening. In our experience, horses that are diagnosed and treated earlier on will have more positive outcomes (avoid pain and loss of weight). It is also interesting to note that many horses bounce back tenfold after extraction of these teeth, even those that end up having all of their incisors extracted at once. Where their owner didnā€™t realize there was a painful component to their disease, the horses become much more bright, happy, and personable after the extractions.

If you have questions regarding your horse, please donā€™t hesitate to call me at 305-244-0678

Horses Had Dentists 3,000 Years Ago. The Origins of Equine DentistryThe simple act of pulling a horse's tooth had a prof...
09/22/2018

Horses Had Dentists 3,000 Years Ago. The Origins of Equine Dentistry

The simple act of pulling a horse's tooth had a profound impact on the progress of human society.

Just like humans, horses can have tooth problems that make them ornery and sap their productivity. So to keep their horses in top shape, Mongolian herders started experimenting with equine dentistry more than 3,000 years ago, according to new archaeological evidence published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Through an analysis of skulls excavated from ancient horse burials on the Mongolian steppe, funded in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society, archaeologists determined that nomads initially sawed off their horsesā€™ unruly teeth with stone tools, and, later, pulled teeth that got in the way of metal mouthpieces.

These ā€œincredible innovationsā€ in horse healthcare ā€œcame right alongside what looks like the emergence of horse riding,ā€ says archaeologist and grantee William Taylor of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. His findings suggest that horse dental care may have helped nomadic people travel across larger distances on healthier mounts and, eventually, effectively control horses as weapons of war.

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