Importance of dental health for horses

Today we are going to delve into a very important topic but also very underrated one at times, the dental care for a horse.
A key thing to know is that the horse teeth grow continuously because they are designed to support the horse, a herbivore planned to spend most of his life grazing for grass and forage which contains a substance called silicate which is abrasive and consumes the teeth in a short time if it does not grow again in time.Horse teeth are only visible up to 10-15% of their total length so as they are not completely visible therefore they require accurate control and monitoring as infection or inflammation can relate to the non-visible part of the tooth.
Many problems and diseases are related to non-alignment of the dental arches , which occurs naturally in nature if the horse lives and grazes on pasture because the two surfaces (upper and lower ) are consumed in a uniform manner which does not happen if the horse lives in a box and follows a regime of “artificial“ grazing.The result of that type of consumption is not the growth of that part of the tooth that is not consumed and produces a tip that slowly but surely becomes more projecting, pointed and sharp and goes on to injure the surrounding tissues such as the inside of cheeks or the gum causing sores and bleeding that will cause pain and discomfort for the horse.In addition to causing pain and injury there are problems with chewing and as a result of digestion.
This is one of the cases in which a dentist is required and in the next episode we will see what are the signs (behaviuoral or physical) that may indicate the need for dental work.