Working with your veterinarian to maintain a healthy mouth can include:

  • Float Incisors
  • Float Molars
  • Burr and Realign Incisors
  • Trim and Buff Canines
  • Make Custom Bit Seat
  • Remove Deciduous Incisors
  • Remove Wolf Teeth
  • Remove Cap Fragments
  • Remove Molar Caps
  • Burr Front Hooks
  • Burr Front Ramped Teeth
  • Burr Rear Hooks
  • Correct Wavy Mouth
  • Extractions
  • Balance Mouth

Give me a call to schedule your appointment!

Location:
just North of Roanoke
1481 Little Timber Ridge Road
Buchanan, Virginia
24066

Hours:
Monday-Friday 8:30 am. to 6 pm.
Saturday and Sunday for emergencies only please.

(540) 537-4442


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Common warning signs that your horse may need care from an equine dentist

Severe Diagonal Bite: This will develop if your horse tends to chew in one direction only. Can also occur secondary to molar misalignment or as a result of missing incisors.
  • Loss of weight
  • Unable to chew efficiently
  • Cheeks sensitive to touch
  • Bad breath from mouth or nostrils
  • Dropping grain
This horse had a bad tooth for so long he rubbed his face raw in many areas trying to get relief from the pain. This went on for 3 years before the owners realized he may have a tooth issue. The tooth was so decayed it had to be removed from below the jaw.
  • Sensitive to bit
  • Head shaking when riding
  • Rearing/bucking when riding
  • Pulling against the rider
  • Sores on the lips, cheeks and/or inside the mouth
  • Dunking hay in the water
  • Irregular movement of lower jaw
  • Soft tissue injuries to the inside of the mouth
Sorry, more than an equine dentist is needed...

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Rostrol Hook - Before and After

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Buccal Points

Shown is an upper arcade of molars with the cheek being pushed away. You can see the sharp Buccal (cheek) points. Such points are scaled as either mild, moderate, or severe.

This is an example of mild points. You can see indentations on the cheeks where the points can catch the soft tissue and cause lacerations.

Rostral Hooks

Definition - Dominant upper front premolars overhang lower premolars. Resulting Problems - Prevents horse from chewing side to side. This can result in improper and excessive molar wear. Can cause excessive wear to opposing lower premolar. Can cause severe bit problems and trauma to soft tissue. Solution - Reduce hook or overlong portion of upper tooth, rounding the portion of premolar smoothly toward gum. Preventative work should be preformed yearly to prevent reoccurrence.

Wolf Tooth

Definition - Smaller size rooted teeth in front of premolars. Most common in upper jaw. Can occur in front of lower premolars.

Resulting Problem - Bit can come in contact with teeth causing severe pain and discomfort as tooth moves. Can fracture or become loose causing discomfort

Solution - Wolf teeth should be removed before horse starts being bitted to prevent discomfort and bad habits. Wolf teeth are not always found in all horses. Have your horse checked if you are not sure or your horses dentistry history.

Rostrol Hook - Before and After

Offset or Diagonal Bite

Definition - Upper incisors on one side of mouth are excessively long and lower incisors on opposite side are excessively long. This causes incisors to meet on a diagonal. This is what we may see if a horse is one sided chewing and can cause the jaw to become severly offset.

Resulting Problem - Causes horse to excessively wear molars( back cheek teeth) on one side of mouth and opposite side molars become excessively long resulting in a sheared molar angle. This can cause TMJ pain.

Solution - Reduce over long incisors. Correct corresponding molar mmalocclusions reworking angles. Depending on severity of slant several follow up appointments may be needed for safely correcting slants.

This correction took several appointments over a years time to correct. You can see how the lower jaw is out of alignment, Now the jaw alignment can ease back into a normal occlusion over time to help reduce TMJ pain that was present from the misalignment.

Caudal Hook - Before and After

Parrot Mouth or Overbite

Definition -Parrot mouth, also called overbite or overjet. A horse with rostral malocclusion of the upper incisor teeth in relation to the lower incisor teeth. Made simple: the lower jaw is shorter that the upper jaw. If the incisors don't meet properly this causes an alignment problem for the molar (back) teeth. This malocclusion or misalignment causes the formation of hooks and ramps that may cause pain to the teeth, jaw and cause TMJ trauma. Overbite’s prevent the horse from chewing and moving it's jaw freely.

Resulting Problem - If a foal with a severe overbite isn't corrected early, the situation will become more severe as its mouth matures. The jaw is too short will catch on the incisors of the opposing jaw. This will restrict it from sliding forward and growing normally.

Tarter buildup

This shows the accumulation of tarter on the canine tooth.

Definition -A hard mineral buildup that deposits along the gum line of teeth.

Resulting Problem - This build up causes inflammation of the gums, allows bacteria and organic material to become trapped and can lead to gum decease and tooth loss.


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Graduate of the American School of Equine Dentistry

Member: International Association of Equine Dentistry

Registered with the Board of Veterinary Medicine

A bit about me...

I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. My family lived on a small farm in Stone Mountain until I was 12. I’ve loved horses as long as I can remember. Begging my parents for a horse was a daily activity. Not until we moved to Bozeman, Montana did my dreams of owning my own horse come true, actually I think it was 5 horses. I was lucky enough to live in an incredible area for trail riding. Living at the base of Hyalite canyon allowed me to travel by horseback and explore endless trails in the most beautiful area I can ever remember. I also got involved in Rodeo events traveling around Montana to compete most weekends.

My father’s job had us moving several times during my high school years so I found myself moving across country several times. By the time I was 18 we had lived in Lakeworth, Florida and Houston, Texas. I was so excited to be able to ride year round, but I have always missed the Mountains of Montana. Not until I married and moved to Virginia with my husband did I get to enjoy the beautiful Mountain riding again that Virginia has to offer. Once in Virginia, I tried my hand at fox hunting, jumping, hunt paces, and showing with my daughter. I found out how much work is involved in winning and I really respect those who work so hard to perfect their horses for the show arena. Now that my daughter is in college and to busy to show, I enjoy going and watching my clients and friends at the shows.

I have been a breeder of both Miniatures and Rocky Mountain horses for 14 years. I also worked at a local Veterinary equine clinic for 7 years and this is where I found my true passion for dentistry. I went back to school and graduated as an Equine Dental Technician from the American School of Equine Dentistry. I have worked with numerous Vets around Virginia and really enjoy helping them service their clients with the most up to date dentistry available. I enjoy the fellowship and friendships that are gained with not only the vets but also the clients and their wonderful horses. I feel everyone I work with has some shared experience of Equine knowledge and when we share this we all can learn from one another. I am grateful for all you have shared and look forward to many years of service and friendship.

These days trail riding is what I currently enjoy during in my leisure time and try and go as much as possible. I am a member of several trail ride associations and enjoying camping and traveling with my horses and meeting new horse friends. If you are interested in trail riding our groups would love to have you join us feel free to call anytime.

Happy trails, Stephanie


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If you're not be lucky enough to get your horse to brush his own teeth as the one below can, give me a call!!


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Why Your Horse Needs Dentistry

I was just sitting here think about my old Quarter horse mare I owned as a youngster. Her name was Lady and she was something in her day. She was sweet, steady, athletic and agreeable. We did everything together, trail riding, parades, and her real passion barrel racing! Barrel racing can be pretty ruff on the mouth. We didn’t have the option of an opened gate to exit the arena on the way home. I’d put a lot of pressure when asking for that sliding stop. When I think of all the razor sharp edges I have seen during my dentistry works I wonder about the horses ability to tolerate this kind of inflicted pain from a bit with heavy hands. How do they keep from just tossing us straight in the air? Oh yeah, some do! Like most horse owners, I loved my horse and when my vet suggested floating the teeth to smooth the edges I was eager to provide this for her.

I scheduled her hand float along with her fall shots. He explained when I pulled hard on the reigns the bit was forced deeper to the back of the mouth. This would force the cheek tissue against the sharp edges of her teeth he showed me the ulcers the edges were causing. This procedure certainly made good sense to me. My vet would float Lady’s teeth each year. He’d pull out a long file that was similar to what they used to trim the feet. I’d cringe just thinking of my trips to the dentist and how I’d react if he pulled something like that out for my teeth. But after a vigorous workout of pulling the file back and forth along the edges of the teeth the job was done.

In her later years she began to chew differently, dropping a little grain at first, then lots more as she got older. And as time passed I’d begin to see a head tilt as she’d chew. She began to loose weight and then I noticed her loosing muscle tone. . It seemed she just wasted slowly away over her senior years. I suspected something some of her problem might be with her teeth. All I knew to do was just keep them floated as my vet recommended but was told this was old age and that there was nothing more that could be done for her. Eventually she suffered from a choke, she became colicky and passed away at the age of 19. Seems young but in human years that is getting close to 60. Now I wonder why we only floated the back molars and not the front teeth. From what I know now, I am sure her back teeth may not have even touched.

That was then, this is now. Dentistry has changed immensely over the past 5 years. Since Veterinary schools do not teach dentistry to Vets the horse community had a real shortage of experienced dentist. Thanks to some lay dentist and Veterinarians who took a particular interest in the teeth and began to collaborate and established independent schools that specialize in dentistry. Some Vets choose to attend continued education classes to keep updated on dentistry while others were busy with an established practice’s that made it difficult to take time off, so they choose to work with technicians. This way they can also offer dentistry to their clients without sending them to other vets.

I worked for a veterinary clinic that offered dentistry for almost 7 years. I was so impressed with this new idea of balancing the whole mouth, not just smoothing the edges that I wanted to learn as much as I could. I enrolled in dentistry school and graduated from the American School of Equine Dentistry. I thoroughly enjoy sharing my knowledge, because I believe if you educate horse owners and really take the time to explain how the teeth work and why dentistry is important, they really understand the benefits of making dentistry part of their health maintenance programs.

I think of the teeth as grinding stones, with a built in pair of scissors, along the edges. Horses shed caps (baby teeth) and they don’t always loose them in order. Some are retained while others shed normally. Retained caps allow the opposing permanent teeth to erupt faster without pressure. They erupt quickly into the opposing gap. This is where an imbalance can start.

A catch will develop, this keeps the lower jaw from sliding smoothly side to side or even making a flexion at the poll difficult. He begins to open his mouth and move the jaw in an unnatural shift to avoid this catch. Now the grinding surface slowly wears away. A few years go by and the catch he is trying to avoid is getting longer while the chewing surface that is being used is getting shorter from excessive wear. Let a few more years pass and his chewing surface is reduced to 50% or less. Even more time passes and he has almost totally lost his chewing ability because the long side hits and locks up the jaw. Uneven pressure on opposing teeth can cause the teeth to loosen over time and even cause a wear pattern than can resemble a chisel grooving out the opposing tooth and finally, tooth loss.

Problems that begin to show up have been in play for some time now. TMJ pain, colic, lacerations on the cheeks and tongue. Problems with head tossing.

Did you know a large number of geriatric horses suffer from malnutrition just because they can no longer chew their food. A horse’s body just can’t normally process food that is not chewed thoroughly. The horses system suffers in more ways than one from a lack of a properly balanced mouth. Have you ever talked to someone that has to feed their horse a mash because their horse doesn’t have any teeth left?

I recommend that you have a dental exam done on your horse at least once a year. Horses under the age of five, I like to see twice a year to make sure the caps or baby teeth are shedding normally this helps to avoid the start of an imbalance. If your vet does not specialize in dentistry look for a registered Equine Dental Technician such as myself, that is willing to work along side with your vet to provide the best up to date dentistry available.

I hope this helps clear up any questions you may have and explain why your horse needs dentistry. Here’s to keeping our horses comfortable and healthy for many years to come.

Stephanie Surprenant, EqDT