The Young Horse (0 – 5 years) It’s a common misconception that young horses do not require dental treatments. Young horses should be checked regularly, every three to six months, to ensure teeth are developing normally and to address any potential issues at an early stage. Additionally, it’s useful to have your youngster accustomed to having someone work around his head and examine his mouth to help him accept this as a normal procedure and to make future work less stressful. During the first five years horses erupt 36-44 permanent teeth and shed 24 deciduous teeth or ‘caps’. Timely removal of these shedding caps can allow a less stressful eruption of the permanent teeth. Wolf teeth erupt at around nine months and should be removed at an early stage to avoid future discomfort for the working horse. Horses can have one to four of these vestigial pre-molars. Although not all horses have wolf teeth, they can occur in both mares and geldings. The Mid-Years Horse Broodmares or the 'non-working horse' without serious pre-existing conditions can usually maintain acceptable dental health with a yearly check. Optimum athletic potential, however, for the working horse is achieved with performance floats every 6 months. Bits, cheek-pieces and nosebands all cause pressure on the soft tissue in the mouth and when pushed onto sharp points can cause abrasions and ulcers which are extremely painful. In the performance horse any hook, ramp or ridge which interferes with the forward and backward movement of the lower jaw can create pain in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and the poll to such an extent that the performance of the horse can be dramatically affected. What is often thought of as "resistance" is in fact a reaction to a painful condition inside the mouth. If sharp points that develop on the molars of performance horses are removed every 6 months this releases the jaw to move more freely allowing the horse to take the correct contact. Some sensitive performance horses will resist work if they have just one sharp point! A bit seat is a procedure of rounding the first premolar teeth so the soft tissue is not pinched between the front of the first upper and lower teeth. This procedure is commonly done for performance horses and can also prevent rostral hooks or the ramping of the first pre-molars. It does not affect the masticatory surface of the tooth (i.e feeding and chewing) but creates a comfortable mouth for the horse so he can achieve his potential. The Older Horse By age 20 horse’s teeth start to come to the end of their lives. The 9th molar (the oldest permanent tooth) becomes cupped out and smooth through wear. This is followed by the 6th pre-molar. Diastemas (spaces between teeth) occur and can cause food to become impacted in the space leading to periodontal disease. Teeth that are loose or no longer functioning can be painful to the horse and may cause him to eat very slowly and fail to grind food thoroughly, causing a drop in weight and condition. The incisors, with age, can grow out from the jaw at a more horizontal angle increasing feeding problems, especially grazing grass and eating hay. Good regular dental treatment from an equine dental technician, along with an adjustment in diet, can help alleviate these natural aging problems.