Hi >>>i think sedation is the easy way, a shortcut for people who dont want to spend a little extra time! we have a good dentist but she only comes here now and then and she doesnt sedate. But the last two times I had to let my vet do it and he sedates.
In terms of dental sedation it depends a lot on what they are doing. If they are doing incisor work they need to sedate because of the power tools they must use. If incisor work is not done and the horse has a 'smile' - middle two incisors the longest going to shorter, then when the back teeth are done they don't meet properly because front teeth are too long. Not many dentists are trained to do incisor work and of course lay dentist cannot, and IMO, should not, sedate horses as they don't have the training. Many of our older horses have worn down incisors from scraping their teeth on salt blocks. We used to be upset by this but our older horses front teeth are appropriately worn down. I have a friend here from England who has been an equine dentist for 8 years and is now taking the first Equine Dentistry university degree course in the world (it is in England). She is aiming to do a Phd on how various types of feed have an influence on wear patterns, and not just the regular hard grass vs soft grass but the actual minerals etc. She came just before the starting young horse clinic and with my vet sedating she did most of the young horses in the course. Several of them had retained caps and if they are not removed the pressure of the halter, sidepull or bit is very unpleasant for the horse and causes 'resistance' to any pressure against the face. Of course if they have wolf teeth IMO they should be removed before horses are bitted. We recently got in several horses that had been in training and there were complaints from the people training the horses that they were uncooperative. None of their teeth had been done and all of them had sharp points and many of them wolf teeth. Since the sharp points were causing ulcers on the inside of the cheeks it was no wonder that the horses became less and less cooperative as they were worked. Another case of there is always a reason. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
