Horse teeth

All horses have twelve incisors at the front of the mouth, used primarily for cutting food, most often grass, whilst grazing.

Wolf teeth are more common on the upper jaw, and can present a problem for horses in work, as they can interfere with the bit.

As with aging through observing tooth eruption, this can be imprecise, and may be affected by diet, natural abnormalities, and vices such as cribbing.

[4] Equine teeth have evolved to wear against the tooth above or below as the horse chews, thus preventing excess growth.

These sharp edges can reduce chewing efficiency of the teeth, interfere with jaw motion, and in extreme cases can cut the tongue or cheek, making eating and riding painful.

Thus, because domesticated animals also live longer, they may simply have more time to develop dental issues that their wild forebears never faced.

A horse's incisors, premolars, and molars, once fully developed, continue to erupt as the grinding surface is worn down through chewing.

A young adult horse's teeth are typically 4.5–5 inches long, but the majority of the crown remaining below the gumline in the dental socket.

Very old horses, if lacking molars to chew, may need soft feeds to maintain adequate levels of nutrition.

Older horses may appear to have a lean, shallow lower jaw, as the roots of the teeth have begun to disappear.

Sometimes, a "bit seat" is filed in the first premolar, where the surface is rounded so that the flesh of the cheek is not pushed into the sharp edge of the tooth, making riding more comfortable for the horse, although the practice is controversial.

Other specific conditions relating to wear include a "step mouth", where one molar or premolar grows longer than the others in that jaw, normally because the corresponding tooth in the opposite jaw is missing or broken, and therefore could not wear down its opposite, a "wave mouth", where at least two molars or premolars are higher than the others, so that, when viewed from the side, the grinding surfaces produce a wave-like pattern rather than a straight line, leading to periodontal disease and excessive wear of some of the teeth, and a "shear mouth" when the grinding surfaces of the molars or premolars are severely sloped on each individual tooth (so the inner side of the teeth are much higher or lower than the outer side of the teeth), severely affecting chewing.

The first four or five years of a horse's life are when the most growth-related changes occur and hence frequent checkups may prevent problems from developing.

Floating involves a veterinarian wearing down the surface of the teeth, usually to remove sharp points or to balance out the mouth.

A person without a veterinary degree who performs this service is called a horse floater or equine dental technician.