Advanced equine dentistry

30/01/2025

Ruby “ Wtf… health food AGAIN! “
She considers a hunger strike until the return of bacon AND normality

30/01/2025

29/01/2025

As Doozle. While I work Ruby “ works “ at making friends

28/01/2025

She does love ❤️ the cat

23/01/2025

With referrals today from both Dr Annemarie Kemmink from AK & K Equine in Ballarat and Dr Jess Kaczmarek it’s was already a busy day, before the cracks began to appear… 😉 at which point it was off to a secret location to conduct emergency repairs and get back on “ Da Road “

22/01/2025

21/01/2025

With Ruby shouting “ Chuck it in sand mode … it’s indoor time again “
We then headed off to cool off

20/01/2025

Me “ Ruby why are you getting hot under the collar? “
Ruby “ Because … there are some nice vets who got help and left reviews .. BUT their are hundreds of VETS who got help who have said NUTHINK and I think that’s abit s**t “
Me “ Yeah but you can’t say that Rubes .. “

20/01/2025

Which of these is the most painful 😣?
In reality this is just a fraction of what we saw today
And a fraction of what we see and treat each day …
SO if you are thinking 🤔
Then you’ll be thinking 🧐
Dentistry could there be more to it than you were thinking 🧠
YES is the answer so that you don’t have to read further ..
Here are a few of todays cases
Shown are peripheral cemental caries ( cavities which eat into teeth 🦷 and lead to other painful problems )
Advanced periodontal disease .. still the NUMBER 1 disease affecting your horses with around 7 out of every 10 horses affected.
In the cases gum disease is at stage 3 where stage 3 is end stage disease and the only way to fix the problem and relieve the pain is the extract the tooth. That requires the use of X-rays prior in all most all cases, nerve blocks, pain relief, sedation and so on.
Also shown here is a painful resorptive lesion .. WHATs that you say?
GOOD question I am glad you asked .. A resorptive lesion starts as a small hole in the structure of the tooth, which progress in size until it causes large defects. They are not the same as caries (or cavities) which result from bacterial acids eroding the cementum. Resorptive lesions can be hard to detect, easily missed and often require X-rays to better visualise the scope of the problem. They “ erode “ tissue until reaching the sensitive nerve ( root canal ) and this allows food, water, air and bacteria to make contact with these sensitive nerves … hence the PAIN, again the solution is to surgically remove the affected tooth.
What we HAVEN’T shown you are conditions like tooth root abscesses or open root canals, fractured teeth, and so. Which we also saw today and which we also see almost everyday.
MORE to dentistry than you might have 💭 thought?
If you have a problem speak to your local vet about seeing us via referral
It’s a totally different … experience

19/01/2025

It’s not always the one you might suspect … that needs to come out
But sometimes … it is
A couple of todays excellent cases in western Victoria ( horsham )

18/01/2025

Another case highlighting why we are writing a how to article on dental photography.. and also again demonstrating not just how we 👀 look, but where..
Interestingly we recently took on a case because the previous clinician didn’t have equipment or experience with smaller patients. This one is much smaller than that one… and we would consider this routine.

15/01/2025

For anyone who recalls yesterday about tips for taking better photos … here’s why it matters and how it helps you.

15/01/2025

Quick… we look disorganised, let’s show why friesians are the superior breed and get organised … yeah ok, right that’s sorted…. Oh wait… there’s always one ☝️ “ but I just can’t help it, I mean… I’m SO beautiful “

15/01/2025

Why do I need this switch? Self explanatory really if you think about it 😉

15/01/2025

Because if I say it… Nobody listens … but when Ruby says so… we all know that it must be true

13/01/2025

Just a couple of very quick, small tips for those vets taking dental photos ..
Article on the subject appearing in coming months in The Veterinarian magazine. Some will understand, some will not see the importance, and some will choose to learn.

12/01/2025

What’s the story here?
Many people consider wolf teeth 🦷 to be simple, yet often they are not aware not only of the many variations of wolf teeth. But also of the significance of their presence or absence in a story at least 50+ MILLION years in the making. You see what you might not know about wolf teeth is that for at least 50 MILLION years as the ancestors of our modern horses and other equids underwent very big changes in their physical form.. wolf teeth 🦷 have been present and persisted. Sure not all of our modern horses develop them, SURE the number that they do develop varies SURE their size and shape varies a lot often even in the same horse, SURE their position also varies more than any other tooth in the mouthes of modern horses. But wolf teeth 🦷 are still here after 50 million years… a vestigial tooth these days ( meaning that they have no function nor use in processing food ) and one which perhaps left to evolution might have eventually disappeared altogether … however given that had not been achieved in 50 million years ..possibly not. Wolf teeth appear to have survived and remained largely unchanged relatively speaking compared to the other teeth and the rest of the horse during this time. A time that takes a small animal perhaps the size of a medium dog and transforms it into the “ average “ horse seen today.
A time that sees changes in the dentition from teeth 🦷 much like this of humans into large teeth that erupt and wear throughout a horses lifetime as part of a number of adaptions both to diet and increase on the physical size of the animals. If you 🛑 stop to think about it it’s quite incredible to consider why the genetic programming for this one small often considered insignificant tooth ( not by me ) should remain the same whilst such dramatic changes take place literally ALL around it.
Think that YOU know dentistry?
WELL… if you are thinking about it 🧠 that’s a great start.
For more things to think about why not visit us at AED.vet or see some of the other posts on this page.