Sorry, the phone decided to focus on the tongue rather than the tooth! But here is an interesting endodontics ('root canal') case from last week. This is an endodontic file going up into the pulp canals. You can see the rotten, infected feed material that was packed inside the pulp canals (where the blood vessels and nerves should be!). This was clearly a very unhappy tooth that very much needed treatment! Fingers crossed we can save the tooth and get her happy and healthy with a much more comfortable tooth in there!
#equinedentistry #morethanraspingteeth #nopaincheckagain #horse #endodontics #rootcanal #dentalvet #equinevet
As promised, a video of the bot larvae in action. Can you see them wiggling around between the teeth??
#thoroughoralexam #dentalvet #morethanraspingteeth #equinevet #botlarvae #gross
Dr Kirsten is heading to Brazil!!!
She is honored to be asked to present her research on peripheral caries and periodontal disease and is also lecturing and running a workshop on treating infundibular caries at the ENIDE dentistry conference in Brazil! She will be joined by esteemed colleagues Dr Mauricio Bittarvet, Dr Nick Moore, Dr Sebastian Alejandro Greco, Dr Murillo Martinez and Dr Rodrigo Romero. For colleagues who have been asking whether we are planning to run an infundibular restorations workshop, this will be an awesome opportunity to learn with lectures and then a full day workshop just on infundibular restorations (and other workshops on other days as well). And what better excuse for a holiday to South America!
The early bird pricing ends on the 31st March so get in quickly to beat the price rise! You can find more information and get the program here: https://enide.com.br/
It will be an awesome week with some lovely colleagues to learn some new skills to better help your patients. Hopefully see you there! :)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4d9DygxkyM/?id=3323080641301859468_64411751998&fbclid=IwAR3BZzq7ZWNojj4kdf48UPh7Q4kS4PcM8ujVefmlOoKx71-k0tUhJ1k322A
A video of a patient's mouth to highlight how many structures there are on horses teeth!!!
All dental examinations need to be performed with sedation, good lighting, a mirror (or endoscope in this case) and in a safe environment to be able to assess all of these structures properly and any underlying disease processes or pathology present.
Question of the day: is this a upper (maxillary) arcade of teeth or a lower (mandibular) arcade?
Infundibular caries series Part 3! If you missed our last 2 videos flip back and have a look as we explain what the condition is, what causes it and what we can do about it. This is the final installment which looks at what they look like long term.
#equinedentistry #infundibularcaries #morethanraspingteeth #horse #dentalvet #fillings #thoroughoralexamination #everyhorseeveryyear
Infundibular caries series Part 2! If you missed our video yesterday please pop back and have a look to better understand what they are and why they form. Today we go through treatment- what can we do to prevent the teeth from fracturing or infection from spreading to the pulp cavities! Tune in tomorrow for Part 3!
Over the next 3 days we will be posting a series of videos on infundibular caries, explaining what they are, how they form and what we can do about them! Here is part 1: How and why they form. Tune in tomorrow for part 2!
As promised here’s an example of a “failed” carrot test to follow up on our last video. Unfortunately this little pony has EOTRH and underwent some extractions following this video to make him more comfortable.
Note how he tries to get the handler to snap the carrot for him rather than biting through it himself, which indicates to us some level of discomfort in these incisors. Again moving the carrot around the mouth and holding it at different angles can help us “test” different incisors.
#nopaincheckagain #thoroughoralexamination #equinedentistry #EOTRH
As promised here’s an example of a “failed” carrot test to follow up on our last video. Unfortunately this little pony has EOTRH and underwent some extractions following this video to make him more comfortable.
Note how he tries to get the handler to snap the carrot for him rather than biting through it himself, which indicates to us some level of discomfort in these incisors. Again moving the carrot around the mouth and holding it at different angles can help us “test” different incisors.
#nopaincheckagain #thoroughoralexamination #equinedentistry #EOTRH
Often we ask our clients to do a "carrot test" at home to monitor how comfortable their horse or pony is biting down onto harder obects with their incisors. Many of you have asked what we are looking for and how to do it, so here's an example video of a horse who is happy biting down on a carrot and has no pain associated with this. You can also try to direct the carrot to each side or to certain teeth we may be concerned about.
We will be posting a video later this week of a little pony much less happy, prior to his EOTRH extractions at the clinic.
#equinedentistry #nopaincheckagain #thoroughoralexamination #EOTRH #neverstoplearning #continuingeducation
Any ideas what we are looking at here? Hint, we removed it from between a horse's teeth!
Amazing what a thorough oral examination can uncover!
#equiendentistry #parasites #dentalvet #horse #horsevet #equinevet
And as an add on to our post last week, this is filling the infundibula with dental material (after a lot of time and effort cleaning out the rotten feed material, disinfecting the cavity, etching and then bonding to prepare the cavity!). I'm not sure whether it is right to post these videos as it does over-simplify a quite complex procedure that requires a lot of time, patience, equipment and especially training and experience to be able to perform, but I do think it looks pretty cool; fulfilling a developmental step that nature missed and filling these deep cavities to prevent further deterioration. Very rewarding.
#equinedentistry #horse #equinevet #horsevet #fillings #infundibularrestorations #morethanraspingteeth #vet #dentalvet #lovemyjob
Following on from our post yesterday, the first step of treating these severe peripheral/ occlusal caries cases (as well as diet/ management changes!) is removing the demineralised, infected dental material from the occlusal surface (as part of our full treatment which we will discuss tomorrow!). We have to be incredibly careful doing this as under these areas are the pulp cavities where the blood vessels and nerves are and if we bur into these we could open a pulp and potentially kill the tooth. We also don't want to remove any healthy tooth so it is a very fine balancing act of removing the infected dental material but leaving as much healthy tooth as possible.
#equinedentistry #horse #dentaldrill #dentalvet #equinevet #morethanraspingteeth #nopaincheckagain
Some more very severe peripheral caries cases that had extended onto the occlusal surface of the teeth, to the point the last 3-4 teeth in each arcade had minimal clinical crown (the part of the tooth in the mouth) remaining. Once the caries get to this stage, the shape of the tooth is almost like a claw that then holds the food against the tooth surface, allowing the feed to stagnate and provides the perfect substrate for bacteria to metabolise it, create acids that demineralise the teeth and therefore for the decay to rapidly progress.
With a diet/ management change (and a little help from our peripheral caries supplement!), you can see that a lot of the caries here on the sides of the teeth are actually inactive- they are shiny, glossy, hard, smooth and darker in colour which is really exciting to see. Unfortunately on the occlusal (grinding) surface of the caudal maxillary cheek teeth though, the caries are still active- you can see a grey, almost furry covering of plaque and demineralised tooth in many areas and that is because of the shape as discussed above that holds the food there against the tooth surface producing a perfect safe haven for cariogenic bacteria. This is really concerning as under these areas of severe decay are the pulp cavities (where the blood vessels and nerves are) and if the decay enters the pulp it will kill the tooth and cause a painful tooth root abscess. Check out our posts over the next couple of days to see how we helped these guys. :)
This little cutie was loving her scratches from aunty Tara! ❤️😊💕😍
She was a wet one today! Not sure what happened to summer!
Interesting video from some of our endodontics (root canal) research. You can see when the canals are flushed, it squirts out through the draining tract out the side- this is where the pus and infection was draining out the side of the tooth and dripping back into the mouth, ouch. :(
#equinedentistry #rootcanal #endodontics #equinevet #dentalvet #horse #research
Burring away some of the decayed tooth prior to restoration on an occlusal caries case.
Teamwork makes the dreamwork! This lovely boy was seen by Dr Tania Sundra at Avon Ridge Equine Veterinary Services, who on oral examination noticed the severe peripheral caries that had extended onto the occlusal surface of multiple teeth, eating into the protective layer overlying the pulp cavities (you can see the 'before' video on our post on the 18th October).
While many cases of peripheral caries can resolve themselves with a diet change, once this severe, the cavities hold the feed in the deep 'caves' and the process continues and if it decays away the protective layer overlying the pulps, it can kill the teeth.
Dr Sundra referred us the case and due to the severity we recommended restorations to prevent the caries from progressing. We are very fortunate in WA to have many wonderful equine vets, all with different areas of interest and expertise. Dr Tania has helped us with many of our tricky metabolic disease and gastric ulcer cases and we can advise and help other equine vets on dental cases. The horses and owners are the real winners when we all work together for the benefit of these wonderful animals. <3
#equinevets #equinedentistry #peripheralcaries #restorations #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #horse #dentalvet #morethanraspingteeth
Another severe case of peripheral caries. :( You can see the first few teeth aren't too severely affected but as you get further back there is almost no clinical crown (the part of the tooth in the mouth) and in fact in some of the upper teeth, the decay has progressed beyond the level of the gumline. Once the caries get to this stage, it creates almost like a 'cave' that holds the feed in place, giving the bacteria a perfect environment of lovely rotten feed to continue demineralising the teeth and for the decay to keep progressing so it becomes a bit of a viscous cycle.
We don't usually recommend restorations ('fillings') in most peripheral caries cases as generally a diet/ management change to eliminate the cause will allow the teeth to recover. In cases this severe however, where the decay has eaten away the protective layers overlying the pulp cavities, and these 'caves' have formed, there is the very real risk that the decay will enter the pulp cavities and kill the teeth. We radiographed the teeth and they appear fine apically at the moment (no sign of a tooth root abscess at this stage), so we have booked him in for restorations next week, to protect the underlying teeth and halt the progression, hopefully saving the teeth.
#equinedentistry #peripheralcaries #morethanraspingteeth #nopaincheckagain #horse #equinevet #dentalvet
