Horse’s teeth are very different to our teeth, they constantly erupt throughout their life (about 3mm per year) and are worn down as the horse grinds its food. Horses teeth get sharp for a number of reasons;

• Horses are Anisognathic – which means they have a wider upper jaw than the lower one, so the teeth are not fully in opposition when the mouth is in a resting position. Therefore, when they chew their food they are prone to getting sharp points on the outside edge of their upper teeth and on the inner side edge of their lower teeth.
• The effect of domestication – In the wild horses spend 18+ hours a day grazing often on very poor quality coarse forage that they have to put more effort into chewing. This aids the wearing down of these sharp points. In the domestic environment we feed them much softer higher quality hay or haylage and soft energy rich grass. On top of that we often feed them concentrates, which although these are sometimes termed “hard feed” are not actually hard at all, so the domestic horse doesn’t have to work nearly as hard to get the same calorie intake.
• Developmental problems and selective breeding, (smaller gene pools), can often lead to dental abnormalities such as missing teeth, extra teeth, displaced teeth, or an overshot or undershot jaw, which can all alter wear patterns leading to uneven or tall teeth. In the wild, a horse that had bad dentition would probably not survive to pass on its bad genes. In the domestic world, we regularly breed the horses that run the fastest, jump the highest, or perform dressage moves the best without taking other important factors like dental conformation into consideration.

Virtually every horse has what is called an abnormality of wear affecting its dentition. What this means in simple terms is that the teeth become "uneven". It can be subtle or dramatic but some degree of asymmetric wear is generally present.

This is a big problem for horses. Why? Well, uneven wear means that one tooth or several teeth are being worn out faster than the others. This can dramatically shorten the functional lifespan of the teeth and lead to premature expiry of those teeth. The equine dental technicians job is to maintain what is called the “balance” of the mouth, by reducing the under worn teeth, rather confusingly called “overgrowths”.

In the last 20 years or so, motorised rasps have become very popular. Many horse owners assume that if the person “floating” their horses teeth is using ‘power tools” that they are addressing these abnormalities of wear. Sadly, this is all too often not the case. It takes many years of training to become proficient at correcting these “overgrowths“ or “balancing” as it is known.

Horses teeth are also very commonly susceptible to many other diseases similar to those that we can get with our own teeth, such as caries, decay, periodontal (gum) disease, tooth abscesses and so on, therefore a detailed oral examination is an essential part of dental care, so that any issues can be quickly treated before they escalate.