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EQUINE MATTERS
FOCUS ON DENTISTRY:
EOTRH
Medical management of a painful condition
Mark Tabachnik,
BSc (Hons) BVM&S CertEP MRCVS BAEDT, Wright & Morten
The teeth at the front of our mouths are called incisors. Horses have
twelve in all – six on the top and six on the bottom jaw. Their role
is to tear and cut food, mostly grass, and pull long fibre such as
hay into the mouth for grinding by the molar teeth. Horses’ teeth
erupt continuously throughout their lives. This eruption is balanced
by horses chewing fibre and grass high in abrasive silicates, which
wears their teeth down at an equal rate (2-3mm per year).
I was mindful of this when I met ‘Tom’.
‘Tom’ is a 26 year old warmblood gelding
who previously worked as a Grand Prix
dressage horse
(figure one)
, but had now
retired for an easier existence of hacking and
eating copious quantities of hay.
A dental examination starts with feeling the
head, then lifting the lips and looking at the
incisors. Immediately it was clear that ‘Tom’
had a problem. Instead of meeting nicely with
an even smile, ‘Tom’s’ lower jaw was offset
and his incisors were displaced
(figure two)
.
He has a disease with the catchy title EOTRH
which stands for Equine Odontoclastic Tooth
Resorption and Hypercementosis.
This disease affects the incisors of older
horses and causes two things to happen.
Firstly, the gums around the front teeth recede,
then the outer covering of the teeth grows
excessively
(figure three)
. It can be painful
and as the disease progresses the teeth can
move and become loose. Currently, the
cause is unknown, but research has focussed
on underlying medical problems such as
Cushing’s disease and gum disease.
EORTH can be painful. In ‘Tom’s’ case I
tapped and wobbled the teeth and he
didn’t seem to mind. There are no specific
treatments but we might need to extract
any teeth that become painful or loose.
Horses without incisors are quite happy
and live a normal pain-free life. Luckily,
horses have big strong lips that can grasp
and pull out grass – a handy replacement
for teeth that fall out with old age!
‘Tom’ will be reassessed in six months time.
However, for now I was happy that although
the disease appears to be quite advanced, it
isn’t causing ‘Tom’ trouble pulling his hay out
of a net or biting a carrot.
If you own an older horse or pony, it’s
definitely worth occasionally lifting their lips
to check their incisors and discussing any
problems you might discover with your vet.
Figure one. ‘Tom’ at the start
of his dental examination
Figure two. The upper incisors
are angled towards the left
and the lower jaw is
displaced to the right
Figure three. Bulging
appearance from increased
accumulation of cementum
around the roots of the upper
incisors (hypercementosis)
Veterinary Surgeon
Mark Tabachnik
XLVets Equine practice
Wright & Morten
Veterinary Surgeons