Your Horse’s Dental Checkup

in molar placement a condition called diastema interdental gaps can develop. 
Food trapped in these gaps will start to rot causing a noticeable odour. When doing a dental exam the smell of rotting food is the first indicator to your veterinarian of possible diastema signaling that your horse is at risk of periodontal disease. Trapped food irritates the gingiva and causes inflammation and inflamed tissues can become infected with bacteria resulting in more inflammation. Over time this will result in the horse having foulsmelling breath. Severe gingivitis if not corrected early will result in periodontal disease and will likely cause damage to the tooth root and potentially damage the collagen fibres holding the root in place. The result can be tooth loss migrating teeth or loose painful teeth. The remedy for a tooth badly affected by periodontal disease may be to remove it to allow the gingiva to heal however tooth removal can cause its own set of problems for your horses dental health. A horse with missing teeth requires even more regular dental attention from their veterinarian possibly even as often as every three months. 
What is EOTRH and How is it Treated?
Equine odontoclastic tooth resorption and hypercementosis EOTRH is a long name for a dental disease that is not common but is becoming more familiar to owners of senior horses. EOTRH was first reported in 2004 and while the incidence is low it does seem to be growing more commonplace. The cause of EOTRH is unknown but when it strikes the incisor and canine teeth on both the upper and lower jaws are affected there is no cure except to remove all of the EOTRHdiseased teeth.
EOTRH originates in the root of the tooth so it is possible that it may start affecting the horse far earlier than what is seen by veterinarians but cases that are well advanced do exhibit classic symptoms. Horses with EOTRH have swollen inflamed gingiva adjacent to their incisor teeth and there is often evidence of severe periodontal disease caused by the inflammation. The disease is characterized by the resorption of the root of the tooth along with a condition called hypercementosis where the cementum the tissue covering the root of the equine tooth grows in an uncontrolled fashion creating a bulbous and deformed root structure. There is often significant tooth decay associated with this disease and there can be drainage of infected material