December: Marty – A New Smile

Marty is a 26 year old Thoroughbred gelding, who had some abnormalities noticed on a routine dental exam. His incisors showed excessive gingival recession and a combination of both tooth and bone resorption. Marty had already lost two of these affected teeth on his own, and he was found to be painful on his remaining affected teeth. These changes are one typical presentation of the disease “Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis” or EOTRH for short. EOTRH is a progressive and painful dental disease of the incisors and occasionally canine teeth wherein the tooth roots begin to reabsorb and in some cases develop bulbous deposits of cementum (one component of teeth) around the roots which then cause the bone around the tooth to painfully deform. EOTRH is still not completely understood, and we don’t know what triggers the start and progression of this disease. What we do know about EOTRH is that it occurs in middle-aged to older horses, most often geldings, it is more common on the West coast than elsewhere in North America, and most importantly, the only treatment for these painful teeth is to extract them. Often people worry how their horse will do without any front teeth, but rest assured they still eat voraciously (typically better than when they had a mouthful of painful teeth) and can even still graze on longer grass. Their tongue just hangs out a little bit without the incisors there to hold it in place.

Marty had all of his remaining incisors removed in December under standing sedation and local anesthesia, and he hasn’t looked back since. Marty has lots of personality, and seems quite happy to be rid of his painful teeth, on a check up call following his extractions, Marty’s owner told us he was doing great, but the only problem was the hair he kept getting caught in his healing extraction sites from biting his paddock mates! Below are some radiographs of EOTRH affected incisors (not Marty) and normal, unaffected incisors (also not Marty), as well as pictures of Marty’s teeth prior to extractions, close ups of the affected teeth, and Marty all healed up with his tongue just poking out between his lips – his new normal. You can read more about EOTRH on our website, and if you have any concerns about your horse’s teeth, contact us to schedule an oral exam.