Abnormal lenght of incisor teeth
If
the horse has never had a chance to wear its incisor by chewing,
biting off grass etc, the incisors might become abnomally long.
They can then prevent the molars from meeting properly and will
severely inhibit grinding of food. The reason is that the incisors
will meet before the molar rows do. If a horse is presented
with this problem, the incisors should be reduced so that normal
chewing can be re-established.
Alignment
problems - underjet, overjet
Alignment
problems of the incisors or overgrown incisors can make grinding
very difficult. Depending on what the problem is, the jaw can
either be inhibited to move sideways because of incisors catching
on each other during the chewing cycle, or if the incisors are
too long they will meet before the cheek teeth do, making the
grinding of the food difficult or impossible.
Parrot
mouth, overbite and undershot jaws don't have to be a problem
in itself, but you can be almost sure that if the incisors don't
meet properly, neither will the molar rows. You will experience
formation of hooks and ramps that might cause pain, trauma and
prevent the horse from chewing and moving it's jaw freely. (See
section of molar problems.). If a foal with a severe overjet
or underjet isn't corrected early, the situation will be more
and more severe, as the jaw that is too short will catch on
the incisors of the opposite jaw. This will restrict it from
sliding forwards to grow normally.
Fractured
or loose teeth
This
occasionally happens if a horse for some reason hits its teeth
against something hard. If the tooth is not very lose, it can
be left in place and see wether it will heal or not, but
a
fractured tooth can easily be infected and it might be neccessary
to remove it. A lose tooth should be left in place also if there
is a chance it might attach itself again. Be aware of infection.
What
these different wear patterns have in common is that there is
a chance that the sideways movement is effected so that the
normal chewing cycle is inhibited.
Missing
teeth
In
some cases a horse might not have all 12 incisors. This can
be due to an accident or it can be congenital. The opposite
tooth will then have nothing to wear against and will be too
long. A missing incisor tooth can that way causse restriction
in sideways movement of the jaw because of this overgrown tooth
catching the others in the sideway stroke when chewing. It can
also cause abnormal wear on the rest of the teeth and a horse
like this needs to be maintained regularly.
Abnormal
wear
Abormal
wear of the incisors can be caused by a number of things, and
it can manifest itself in different ways. High enamel ridges,
pain or restricted movement in the Temporo-Mandibular joint,
pain in the muscles of the head, pain elsewhere in the mouth,
severe hooks and ramps, overgrown molars, retained incisor caps,
cribbing, wood chewing etc are just some of the reasons for
abnormal wear in the horse's incisor teeth.
Normal Incisors |
Offset/diagonal
bite |
Dorsal curvature (frown) |
Ventral curvature (smile) |
