|
The cheek teeth (the back six teeth)
are divided into premolars and molars. The pre-molars and molars
extend along the upper and lower jaws of the horse from the bars
of the mouth (the area where the bit resides) to just behind the
level of the eye.
The first three cheek teeth are
the pre-molars. There are 12 deciduous pre-molars (teeth that will
be shed) and there are 12 permanent pre-molars which will replace
them. The deciduous teeth may come out on their own or they may
need a little encouragement from your dentist. The dentist will
refer to them as caps and will generally use a cap extractor to
remove them. In thoroughbred racing for example, the trainer will
not want the horse distracted from his work by fiddling with the
caps and the dentist will monitor the caps and remove them as soon
as they are ready.
The first pre-molars (the number
6 teeth) will usually have shed by the time the horse reaches 2
1/2 years of age and by the time the horse is 3 1/2 years of age
all of the deciduous pre-molars ((the number 7 and 8 teeth) should
have been shed.
The three teeth behind the pre-molars are the
molars. The molars differ from the pre-molars in that they do not
have any deciduous teeth preceding them and therefore they may be
referred to as accessional teeth. The lower molars are narrower
than the uppers, and sit about a half-tooth-width inside the edges
of the uppers. When the horse chews, the food is ground between
these tables as the lower jaw moves down, out to the side, up and
in again. Normal chewing consists of a circular motion several
times in one direction, then a shift to chewing several times in
the other direction forming a symmetrical figure eight pattern
overall. The food is moved backwards along the molar table as the
chewing process takes place.
The more a horse can chew its food, the easier
it is for the digestive system to get goodness from the food.
Often people will say that there horses teeth are fine because he
is continually eating, however, it could be that the horse is
needing to eat more food than is necessary because it is not
chewing the food properly. This means that the digestive system
cannot get the optimum benefit from the food and the horse needs
to eat more to maintain its condition. The molars can only perform
at their best if the surfaces of the upper and lower cheek teeth
meet properly. This meeting of the teeth (occlusion) can be
affected by many factors, however, the most common factors would
include:
the incisors (the front teeth) being too long so
that the cheek teeth are held apart a molar or pre-molar being
longer than the other teeth in the arcade and therefore preventing
a good contact |