Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry

02/04/2025

This tooth was extracted from a 16yo WB gelding who had no symptoms yet. He was eating well and had no nasal discharge. The fractured tooth was found on a routine oral exam and float by his primary care veterinarian. This is the second molar on the upper right (5th tooth back out of 6) so it sat just a little closer to his nose than his right eye. When we pulled it out, it was full of stinky feed material. We are pretty sure this is a case of "Better out than in!"😜

01/31/2025

EOTRH (Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis) can be a very scary diagnosis for horse owners. It means that eventually, all of your horse's front teeth, and sometimes the canine teeth, will need to be removed because they will become excruciatingly painful. Owners often worry about how their horse will function without any front teeth. The answer is: better than they functioned with them! After the front teeth are removed, horses graze and eat much more comfortably now that their painful teeth are out of the way.

The most common long-term side-effect is that you might see your horse's tongue. This is a recent patient for whom we extracted all of his front teeth and his two lower canines about 2.5 weeks ago. He is eating, drinking, and playing as usual. And if you look carefully, you can see a teeny, tiny bit of tongue peeking out of the left side of his mouth. Until he catches you looking and pulls it in. 😉

01/14/2025

There are two excellent client education seminars coming up in February, one hosted by Forward Thinking Equine Veterinary Services and the other hosted by Blauner, Buchholz and Associates. Please take advantage of all the wonderful knowledge these excellent veterinarians have to share!

DelVal Equine is excited to partner with Blauner, Buchholz & Associates to host their 2nd annual Horse Owner Lecture Night! We hope you can join us!

01/03/2025

Horse teeth are made out of three materials:

Enamel (Green Arrow): This is the whitish, translucent material. It forms the ridges that help grind up hay and it is the hardest material in the equine body.

Cementum (Red Arrow): This yellower material forms most of the volume of the tooth. This provides the cushioning between the dentin and the enamel and gives the tooth it's overall shape.

Dentin (Orange Arrow): This black material is the superhero of equine teeth. It protects the pulp (blood vessels and nerves) from exposure and fills in the infundibulae (cups) on the upper cheek teeth. The coolest thing about it is that when an equine tooth cracks, the dentin will attempt to fill in all the open pulp chambers to save the tooth from infection and total destruction. Most of the chewing surface on this particular tooth is covered in dentin trying to do just that. It didn't work in this case (we had to extract the tooth) but sometimes it does!

12/18/2024

So, this is not a normal cheek tooth, or I wouldn't be holding it in my hand. But, does anyone know which three materials make up a horse's tooth? You can see all three of them really well on this chewing surface. Bonus points if you know the purpose of each material!

12/13/2024

When your mom doesn't give you enough candy canes and the veterinary dentist shows up with a head stand...🤣

11/28/2024

Wishing all of our clients and anyone who loves horses a wonderful Thanksgiving. We know that life is not always smooth, but we hope that everyone has at least one person, place, or thing that they can look toward with gratitude this Thanksgiving. We are so grateful for everyone who has given us a lift this year, both two-legged and four-legged. And for small moments of humor and joy. Please see our new radiology technician below. 😄

11/22/2024

In addition to carefully looking at the teeth of all our patients, we also carefully check the soft tissues in their mouths. This includes gums, palate, bars, commissures, and lips. Sometimes we find damage or sources of pain. In this case, this horse had a brand new bit that was pinching the corners of his lips, or commissures, and leaving these red bruises. We let the owner know and she switched his bit. Now he is having awesome ride after awesome ride. This is why we go to work every day. 😊

11/08/2024

Can you spot which photo is the "before" and which is the "after"? One of the reasons it is so important for horses to have an annual oral exam is that their teeth can actually damage their cheeks and tongues if not properly cared for. In the photos below, we are looking inside a horse's mouth using a dental mirror (the red circle.) The fleshy thing in the middle of the picture is the tongue and the metal thing at the bottom of the picture is the bite plate for the speculum. If you look into the dental mirror, you will see that some of the cheek is a nice healthy pink, and some of it is angry brown and yellow. Those angry brown and yellow spots are buccal ulcers. They are essentially wounds in the cheek caused by the sharp points you can see on the edge of the teeth. In the after photo, you can see that those sharp points have been filed away by the float. This will allow the cheeks to heal up, though this horse may always have scars.

11/08/2024

We are just about one month into our work at Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry. We feel so privileged to have so many clients supporting us. We are here for you and would be nothing without you, so thank you! We are having a great time out there and it is so rewarding and fulfilling to be able to help so many horses. We can't wait to do more!

Photo credit to Jennifer Alderfer and Journey for being an excellent model mini for her oral exam.

10/14/2024

Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry went live today! Jess Tinoco Cassel and Dr. Talia Lin had such a great time being out on the road with our lovely clients and patients! We can't wait to do it again tomorrow! Thank you to all!

(Credit to Pat Stephenson for the video and Roxie for being such a lovely patient.)

09/20/2024

Our float arrived! This is the tool we use to grind down sharp edges on a horse's teeth to keep them from damaging their cheeks and tongue. We also use hand floats when the situation demands it. Horses' teeth get sharp as they chew and wear their teeth because their upper jaws are slightly wider than their lower jaws. This means the teeth wear unevenly and can get steak knife sharp. Every horse should have their teeth thoroughly examined at least once a year to check for sharp points, misalignments, loose or fractured teeth, etc. Many will need to be floated at that time.

09/20/2024

Our speculum has arrived! Fred the Head, Dr. Lin's equine skull from the San Carlos Reservation outside Phoenix, Az, is modeling the speculum for demonstration purposes.

Our speculum is a vital piece of equipment since this is the tool that allows us to do a thorough oral exam. It allows us to see inside the horse's mouth, both using a mirror and an oral endoscope. It also allows us to safely feel every tooth and the soft tissues like bars, tongue, palate, and cheeks. The speculum makes it possible for us check for loose or fractured teeth, soft tissue injuries from tack or other causes, and foreign bodies like sticks that may be wedged between the teeth or across the palate. We are so excited our X-spec is here!!

Also, Dr. Lin's dog Latka is making a cameo investigating this newness in her world.

09/10/2024

As Cardinal Equine gets ready to open our doors October 14, 2024, we are gradually acquiring all our equipment. Some of these purchases are more exciting than others, but we are psyched about this one! We have our truck! You might notice that it looks a lot like Dr. Lin's old truck. She loved her red 4Runner so she got another one! Plus, could Cardinal Equine really drive around in any other color? Shout out to Brandy at Sloane Toyota in Glenside who made it happen!

07/05/2024

The gray metal thing in the horse's mouth is called a speculum. It keeps the horse's mouth open so that we can safely examine the cheek teeth and the soft tissue structures inside the mouth, including the cheeks, palate, tongue, and bars. This particular speculum is made out of aluminum, so we can take x-rays right through it!

07/05/2024

Welcome to Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry! We are a dentistry-only veterinary practice serving Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester Counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. We are excited to start seeing appointments October 14, 2024. Please check out our website at www.cardinalequine.com for more information and to schedule an appointment. We can't wait to serve as your equine dentistry professionals!

Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry Cardinal Equine is a mobile equine veterinary dentistry service that provides routine and advanced dental care to equines of all ages in Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester Counties in southeastern Pennsylvania. We work closely with your regular veterinarian or dental...