When you use a new equine dental student and discover, after 15 years of ownership, that your horse has an extra molar!

[SassieSoz]

I've used about 4 different qualified equine dentists over the 15 years I've had my boy (either they've moved or I've moved) but my current lady has been the first to tell/show me that he has an extra upper molar.

She's currently a BAEDT student member (complete with mentor) and has been a delight to deal with. Friendly, engaging, patient and happy to explain and show what's going on with his nashers This is not a reflection on previous ones, but she genuinely loves what she's doing.

Not one of the previous dentists had spotted (presumably) this extra #12 molar, much less told me about it. This obviously has led to quite regular raspings over the last twelve months to deal with (1) it's unrestricted growth (2) to keep it to a level where it no longer causes any issues (only thought there was something wrong as started to eat hay a bit oddly - should point out he is a reactive horse at the best of times so he was being surprisingly stoic in this instance!).

Has anyone else been told about 'surprise' extra teeth after years of ownership and dental visits?

 

[Summit]

My 20 year old had a baby tooth removed last year

 

[monte1]

Not exactly an extra tooth, but when i had my boy vetted as 5 year old, the vet noticed one of his central front teeth was 1/3 shorter than the other and said it must have snapped off at some point, no trauma and not causing an issue so all good, then about 2 years later when my own vet was doing a routine dental rasp etc, we noticed just above it what looked like a small tooth growing down, so she pulled it out , must have been a baby tooth as came out easily an no real root- anyway, within a few weeks the main tooth then grew down and now is level with the other one- i am assuming the baby tooth was sort of blocking its progress. extremely odd has anyone experienced that before ?

 

[abbijay]

I initially used an unqualified "dentist" to do my horse's teeth when I didn't know any better. After a couple of years we switched to a fully qualified EDT (something niggled that it just wasn't right) and that's when we discovered 2 extra molars, displastic teeth, diastemas and all sorts!
We had 1 tooth removed last July (not one of the extras) and yesterday he was back in to have another removed and ended up with 2 fillings! If I had copies of the CT scans to hand I would share, it's certainly not a text book mouth!

 

[Leo Walker]

OP you dont use someone with the intials HB do you? You are near me and it sounds like my dentist. If it is, shes brilliant and I'm thrilled with her work

 

[eggs]

Mine pointed out that one of my horse's has four extra teeth - he does have an exceedingly long head

 

[irishdraft]

Yes I had owned my mare for several years and had her teeth done before one dentist told me she had two extra molars on the upper jaw at the back very difficult to reach and she wasn't the easiest with her teeth so maybe that's why it wasn't mentioned .

 

[JillA]

I have one locally that is in the process of training in the more complex processes but is very good with floating them and doing simple checks,and a pleasant character too. I guess there is a new generation that love doing it and don't just do it because horses were in their families?

 

[Gloi]

My cob had a weird extra tooth growing outside his lower corner incisor. It wasn't a misplaced tush ,he had one of those in the normal place. I never knew what it was but it didn't cause a problem while I had him - (from 3 to 5). Sorry about the picture quality he wasn't for keeping still. It started growing at the same time as his adult corner tooth.

 

[Goldenstar]

Hero has a bizarre little molar formed from the back tooth semi fused with his normal back molar it appeared when he was twelve .
Removing it , he will have to lose his normal back molar as well so it’s going to be a big and problematic job to get out .
He having it rasped three times a year atm .
It’s going to be a job for a specialist tooth vet who the ptactise I use get in to deal with big job .
It defiantly just appeared .
I felt him a bit strange in the hand called out the vet dentist who looked in his mouth said where the ***** that come from .

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Interesting thread this.

On Monday night, a local vet practice had a Client Evening (confession, I'm not a client of this particular practice but went anyway as it was an open invite); and they had a couple of Equine Dentition experts talking about the subject, complete with all the gory pictures, as you'd expect!

It was fascinating! Apparently some 70% of horses who are referred to them with dental problems, do not show any prior symptoms.

 

[chaps89]

I changed dentist a couple of years ago. New dentist found fragments of wolf tooth left behind from many years earlier!

 

[SassieSoz]

OP you dont use someone with the intials HB do you? You are near me and it sounds like my dentist. If it is, shes brilliant and I'm thrilled with her work

Lol, she's brilliant isn't she! It's lovely to meet someone who just loves their job - I recommend her whenever I get the chance

 

[SassieSoz]

Interesting thread this.

On Monday night, a local vet practice had a Client Evening (confession, I'm not a client of this particular practice but went anyway as it was an open invite); and they had a couple of Equine Dentition experts talking about the subject, complete with all the gory pictures, as you'd expect!

It was fascinating! Apparently some 70% of horses who are referred to them with dental problems, do not show any prior symptoms.

MiJods - My boy's really quick to notify me when he's not happy about something (saddle, bit, the weather......) but other then chewing a tad oddly a couple of times this last week, it was a bit of a shock last night when his dentist removed some compacted food from the extra molar and found it was caused by some long strands of really fine wire All good now though. It always amazes me how stoic horses can be!

 

[SassieSoz]

 

[WelshD]

I think it was the fourth or fifth professional (combination of vets and dentists) that discovered that my naughty pony had several missing teeth including one where the corresponding tooth was growing up in to the gap above meaning that he had restricted movement in his jaw

Unfortunately by that time behavioural problems as a result of pain were very ungrained

I knew there was a problem so kept calling people out, I was amazed so many people missed it and could have kissed the marvelous lady who eventually spotted the problem

 

[Tiddlypom]

And even if the ‘professional’ is briefed that the horse has a missing tooth, in my 13yo mare’s case a missing molar on the mid point of her upper left jaw, it doesn’t necessarily mean that appropriate care will be taken.

The missing tooth was found and the resultant shear/wave mouth abnormality was corrected by the age of 3. Somehow in the intervening years from ages 4 to 10, despite 6 monthly floating, the opposing tooth to the missing molar was allowed to grow down and into the diastema. After I’d bought her at the age of 10, you can imagine the mess that my own (excellent) EDT found when he first saw her. He is rarely shocked but he was this time! Over a period of 2 years he has restored her mouth to 80% of normal function, but the poor mare had undoubtedly suffered in the interim. The previous owner was conscientiously paying *persons unknown* to float her teeth at regular intervals, but just quite what they were doing for their money is unclear.