Dentists, and those who know about teeth! - longish!

[MontyandZoom]

I posted the other day about my dentist saying my horse needed extra work but, since I wasn't there when his teeth were rasped , I didn't understand what it was.

Well I finally got through to my dentist and he explained that Monty's teeth need grinding down on the edges since they are in bad shape and the outside edges are very long. I was a bit confused since they were done last year and the dentist's dad (also a dentist

) said he thought Monty was over 30 so there was no point doing any major work

I asked the son dentist how old he thought Monty was and he said 'I didn't age him'. I then told him what the last dentist had said and he agreed that if he was that old it would do more harm than good to do major work (I also don't like having him sedated unless absolutely necessary).

He is going to come anyway and age Monty and we will then decide if the work is going to be done.

Now my question - how difficult is it to age an horse from his teeth? I mean, I thought that it would have been fairly obvious that Monty is geriatric from rasping him. I guess he was doing 12 horses so maybe just looked at his back teeth.

We don't know how old Monty is but the dentist last time said he was 30 and the two vets that have looked at him agreed that was about right. The problem is - he is in good nick (apart from his creaky legs) so do you think he could have got it totally wrong last year?

Sorry - very long and rambling. Triple choc chip cookies to all who get to the bottom!

 

[the watcher]

I think they reach a stage when you can only say that they are aged, without being more specific. My understanding, and I am not an expert, is that with much older horses, it is less damaging to the teeth to use power tools, so sedation will be needed, as it causes less stress to the teeth and jaw. Of course it this age it is particularly important that they can chew properly with whatever teeth they have left

 

[Dopeonarope]

You can only age them very roughly by their teeth and only really up to 15 years old. After that all you can say is basically they are > 15 years ...

 

[Annagain]

My old boy had his teeth done 3 weeks before he died unexpectedly aged 27 (colic).The dentist wouldn't believe that he was that old and said he had the teeth of a 15 year old. He was a registered Section D, I had a had him 14 years and knew his full history and his mum so knew he was definitely 27, but the dentist was still convinced he was about 15, so no it's not that easy even for experts to age them from teeth!

 

[MontyandZoom]

Hmmm......in that case the youngest Monty could be is 22. He got his passport done 7 years ago and the vet looked at his teeth and said he was over 15 (which makes sense with what you've said above) so put down 15, he wasn't mine at the time. He also put down that he is 16hh though and he is nearer to 17hh!!

I suppose we are no nearer to knowing how old he really is but hey-ho. I will see what this dentist says and decide whether to get the work done when he's reasessed him.

 

[digitalangel]

my EDT told me that a groove comes down on the top side of one of the incisors - after the age of twenty and grows around a millimetre a year - so over 20 it becomes easier again

do any other EDT's want to confirm this?

 

[PaintboxEDT]

you can age a horse up until the age of 25 ish,you will not need alot of work doing in the mouth if the horse is 30 ?? it is whats known as a comfort float and that means to take away any sharp edges and leave as much occulsal surface as possible so that they can chew, by that age the teeth have stopped growing/erupting and the root system is very small the EDT does not want to start grinding lots of tooth away as it will also possibly make them loose.