A horse's jaw requires attention and care, as horses rely on their ability to grind their food and their temporomandibular joints are prone to inflammation. Offer good dental hygiene for a horse with helpful advice from a veterinarian in this video on caring for horses.
Hi, I'm Dr. Joanna Robson. I'm a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with Inspiritus Equine, Inc. I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the horses jaw. Horses are grazers or herbivorous which means that their jaw tends to move in a lateral excursion or grinding motion. Dental care is very, very important for the horses to make sure that they can appropriately grind their food. We can check for their ability to grind or their lateral excursion by placing one hand on the bridge of the nose and another beneath the jaw, and sliding the jaw, side to side, to feel for the occlusal services of the teeth which means where the teeth meet and come together. The horses jaw also has a TMJ or a Temporomandibular Joint on each side. The TMJs can become very very inflamed in horses that have ill fitting tack; heavy handed riders; dental problems or bitting issues. The bars of the horses jaw are on the inside of the mouth behind the canine or cush teeth and it's the area of the horses jaw that doesn't have any teeth. The bars of different horses jaws can all have a very different anatomy. Young horses bars tend to be very sharp; older horses or horses who've been ridden by heavy handed riders tend to get calluses on the bars. The bars of the horses jaw play a very important role in how we appropriately bit our horses and how we communicate them through our hands, through the rains of the bridle. So the horses jaws are pretty complex thing and plays a big role in our horses performance. Most importantly, routine dental care is very important in maintaining normal jaw health.
Specialty: Vetrinary Medicine
