07/29/2026
We had our annual Dental Day with Dr. Felix. He truly is a master at his craft, exceptionally quiet with the entire process being very low stress, and is very willing to share his knowledge.
Yesterday was a good reminder of just how stoic these horses can be. These horses are hard wired to appear as healthy as possible so they do an excellent job at surviving despite some rather significant issues.
One horse had 16, yes, 16 teeth come in between our visit last year and this year. All the while, he’s been in ridden work, willing, eating well, playful, with no apparent discomfort.
Another had teeth that had grown in such a way his lower jaw was being physically pulled to the side. He had several sores in his mouth and quite a bit of scar tissue all along the interior of his cheeks from the hooks and sharp edges. (I didn’t have dental history on him so I can’t stay when his teeth had last been done.) He’d also been in consistent work, had a willing attitude, no problems eating, playful with other horses, etc.
Another had a small gap between two-premolars. It wasn’t that big, no loose teeth, but due to the location of the gap, the tooth in front of it was under a good amount of pressure and being jammed forward when the horse was chewing likely causing moderate to significant discomfort. Balancing the other teeth will help take some of the load off of that tooth. This is a relatively young horse who has always had annual care for the teeth. This particular issue needed more intervention than previously given, and will need a check up in six months to see how things have progressed.
In my experience, there’s a few types of maintenance that are pretty important, and teeth are on that list. This is particularly true as we don’t usually have the equipment to examine them properly on our own.
All in all, everyone should be feeling really good going forward, and they all enjoyed their post dental naps.
