Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine August 2020 Vol 5 Issue 3

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

DENTAL NEEDS OF THE SENIOR HORSE By Ed McCarty

understanding the effect of the eruption process as relates to the health and performance of our horse. The bone formation which promotes the eruption of teeth into the mouth occurs at the rate of approximately 1/8” per year. This results in the teeth being forced to erupt into the mouth at the same rate of approximately 1/8” per year. At this rate, 20 years of this process would result in each tooth being shoved about 2½” into the mouth! Yes, in fact, the horse has had to literally grind away well over 2 inches of each tooth by the time they are approaching 25 years old. (The process basically starts at around 5-year-old when all the permanent teeth are in position). We have established in previous articles that the permanent teeth are about 3” long in the average size 5-year-old horse. This means that our 25-year-old equine has very little tooth still up in the gums and dental cavity to hold their teeth in place for grinding. As a result, the molars (or grinders) can begin to fall out beginning around 23-25 years old. It is very easy to understand how tooth loss can have a very detrimental effect on grinding power but let’s look at some of the other ill

We have established in the preceding articles that horses have all of their permanent teeth in position by the time they are 5 years old and that these teeth will be continually forced to erupt into the mouth throughout the life of the horse. This eruption process occurs due to new bone being

continually formed in the head bone above the upper teeth and in the jawbone below the lower teeth. Now let’s take a look at the effects of this process over a period of 20 or so years in the life of the horse.

A little basic math explains a lot in

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