Dental Issues and Care for Older Horses

Horses have teeth that continually erupt throughout their life, but they are of finite quantity, meaning, adult teeth do not actually grow once they mature but are gradually pushed out of the jaw as their surface is worn down until they are gone. In the past, horses generally did not live long enough to reach the point where their teeth “wore out.” In this current day of recreational use, horses are living longer and their dental care can create additional health challenges. Here’s a link to an article discussing these challlenges. I would add to it a caution against using power dental tools as they are very aggressive and as such very easy to create major problems for your horse, not only by prematurely wearing out the finite quantity of their teeth, but creating chewing problems by planing teeth flat (horses need ridges in their teeth sufficient to cut and grind their food), among other negative effects. https://thehorse.com/113745/senior-horse-dental-health/