Tandvårdens betydelse för hästens användning och hälsa
We choose to revise the need of dental care in horses. How important is the dental care for our horse´s use and for their health?
The objective of this work was to see if there is a difference between Swedish veterinaries and educated horse dentists opinion concerning horse dental care. As horse owners, we have experienced that there is a conflict between the opinions of these two occupational groups. Some veterinarians say that there is a tendency to use to much treatments or instruments in horses mouths, while some horse dentists says that there is not enough treatments done in horses´ mouths. Which opinion is right? What measures are important to do in horses´ mouths? What risks are there if there is too much treatment done in horse?s mouths?
We asked eight questions to five veterinarians and eight questions to five educated horse dentists about how important horse dental care is. We wanted to know if there really was anyone who thought that there is no need for treatments in horses´ mouths. We wanted to create a picture of their experiences from their daily work. The questions we asked were if horses do need dental care, how often the teeth need to be floated, if it is necessary to remove wolf teeth and the most common affections in horses´ mouths. Most of the questions had different options to answer and we also wanted a motivation to some of the answers.
We were a little surprised to the answers that we got. The answers showed that there is not that big a difference between vets and dentists. The majority thought that dental care for horses is important, and that they really need it. Regular checks are recommended to make sure that there are no emerging problems. Most of the horses do need some kind of dental care from time to time. In the case of wolf teeth removal, the horse dentists and the vet´s differed; most of the veterinarians did not think that wolf teeth should be routinely removed, while all of the dentists thought that wolf teeth should be removed in preventive intent.