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I am very happy with my equine dentist (Geoff Tucker of the Equine Practice, based in Florida, who travels throughout the US). He uses good horsemanship to float the majority of horses without sedatives, uses pain meds judiciously, and is just very dedicated to careful, consistent dental care.

Emi just had her third appointment with him. I knew she needed some work since our last appointment on one lower side of her jaw, due to some fussiness that emerged in the last few months. After some patience and persistence from Dr. Tucker, I think she will be a lot happier now. I've become a believer in doing dental maintenance in 6 month intervals. I'm the only one in my barn who does this routine...or uses a DVM a natural horsemanship approach to dentistry. But it can be good to be weird! It is cool to see her check her teeth and relax her jaw as he works.

I'm fortunate in that my regular vet is somewhat of a dental specialist. He checks mine very 6 months or so, too. I credit his diligence to my 34 year old still having all his own teeth and looking so good!

Moutaineer, that is really encouraging to hear. So many folks around me seem to be on the yearly float schedule (and usually power floating), but I like the 6 month manual schedule as it catches things before they become too uncomfortable (leading to new mouth habits).

I used to use a vet for dental work, this past weekend, I had a dentist come out instead and wow, what a difference. I was very impressed.

Twice a year the equine dentist comes to our barn. The horses love her. No sedation, no power floating, horses stay calm. I'm very happy with her. My vet said one of the reasons Bob maintained good health was his good teeth. Miss A. is a cribbed so regular dental maintenance is a must.

Paula, I would love to know your equine dentist's name (just for reference)!

There has been some linking of EORTH with excessive rasping of dental care. When this first came up i tried to find the article again, but had difficulty. Anyway, there is a thought that the rasping of teeth caused vibrations in the jawbone that stimulated hypercementosis. The reason for this was that EORTH is rarely seen in horses that do not have routine dental care.

Having said that, i think dental care is needed but unless there is an excessive problem, i only have mine checked annually, and only have them done if something is needed.

My theory, i guess is that no care is bad, enough care is good and more is not always better.

I use a DVM who does chiro and acupuncture. She is much more cognizant of being gentle with the horses. My regular vet is just too aggressive both in the actual floating and how much she does in there. I love my holistic vet!! She does use sedation, I am just fine with that.

khall wrote:I use a DVM who does chiro and acupuncture. She is much more cognizant of being gentle with the horses. My regular vet is just too aggressive both in the actual floating and how much she does in there. I love my holistic vet!! She does use sedation, I am just fine with that.

I would rather use sedative and have an easy gentle relaxed good job. If the horse is resistant we sedate, if the horse us comfortable, we do not. I have owners who insist on no sedation. I tell them. Next time they go to the dentist they better refuse chemical assistance.