Garden State Equine Veterinary Dentistry

14/07/2025

We love having so many clients that are also veterinarians! Thirteen of the seventeen horses we saw today were owned by a total of four veterinarians. These veterinarians had quite the breadth of expertise: pathology, regulatory, small animal, and equine. Veterinary medicine is such a cool field with so many different aspects and we were happy we could help some of our own with their horses!

09/07/2025

When the opportunity presents itself to snuggle a foal, you can't pass it up! This little guy is appropriately named "Little Foot" and is only about 3 weeks old! He & his mom were kindly rescued by . He stood watch while his mom got some much needed dental care! Dental care should start at birth, and Little Foot got a brief exam too to make sure his teeth appear to be erupting normally.

12/06/2025

We love to love on your horses, including with bribes of treats! But please please refrain from offering treats before their dental exam! We actually bring our own super special treats with us to appointments that DON’T stick to the teeth like this, so that any horses that require food bribes to befriend us or to be compliant for IV injections can still get a snack 😬

06/06/2025

The answer to yesterday's post!

This horse has had a long history of a draining tract from his left mandible that was believed to be a non-healing wound. On radiographs, you can see that the draining tract communicates directly to the apically infected 307! This tooth has a tooth root abscess. Due to the chronic infection (and gravity), the abscess is draining from the mandible. Luckily, this "non-healing wound" can be easily fixed with the extraction of this infected tooth! Once the problem tooth is removed, the infection will resolve and the draining tract will heal.

05/06/2025

Can you spot the abnormality? One mandibular cheek tooth quadrant is normal, while the other is not. We will post the answer tomorrow!

26/05/2025

Malocclusions are a common problem we see in miniature horses and donkeys. Sometimes there just simply isn't enough room to fit the same number of full-sized teeth into the skulls of these tiny equines. Some malocclusions can be managed by diligent routine dental care, but unfortunately others cannot. In this case, the 107 was overlong and displaced towards the cheek, while the 108 was overlong, rotated, and displaced towards the palate. Because these teeth didn't line up properly and fit together as tightly as they should, food was able to pack between them and around them, causing periodontal disease and leading infection and bone loss around the teeth. These teeth were extracted to prevent further complications from advanced periodontal disease. (For the veterinarians following along, there are other abnormalities on the radiograph pictured, but we chose to just focus on this one for this Facebook post).

For our miniature friends that visit us at our clinic, we have a specialized set up just for them! For a lot of these little fellows, it can be hard to elevate and extend their head enough for us to work on them without either them being uncomfortable or us literally laying on the floor. For the comfort of both them and ourselves, we have a ramp system specially designed to fit in our stocks so that we can work sitting down and they can keep their heads nice and level while being safely contained. We had this design custom made for us for the safety and comfort of our smallest patients.

15/05/2025

Ouch! This tooth is fractured! While the fracture is very obvious, lets talk about why this happened! Horses can get caries (cavities) in their maxillary cheek teeth. This happens when decay develops within the infundibulum. As these caries fill with feed material, the crown of the tooth gets weaker. This decay can eventually lead to fracture and/or an infection. Feed was packed so deeply into this particular fracture that both halves of the tooth were displaced, poking this horse in the cheek and the palate. The first photo was taken after all of the feed material had been removed. The other photos were taken after extraction of the tooth. This horse will feel much better without this painful fractured tooth!

28/04/2025

We are super excited to introduce our new fence at The Horse Park of New Jersey! We are proud to be a sponsor of the and support our local equine community. If you have photos of yourself jumping our fence, like , tag us so we can see!

09/04/2025

This senior horse presented for the evaluation of nasal discharge. He was severely underweight, weighing approximately 300lbs less than he should. He had a Body Condition Score of 2/9, despite the owner believing they were feeding the horse adequately. We want to emphasize the fact that age is not a disease. Horses should not be skinny just because they are old - it is either because there is an underlying condition or because they are not being fed properly.

Upon oral exam, this horse’s teeth had excessive wear due to geriatric attrition, meaning his teeth were quite smooth with very little grinding surface. There was rotting feed material packing in between spaces in between his cheek teeth causing severe periodontal disease, which you can see in the photos. The periodontal disease had caused significant bone loss of his cheek teeth. In the radiographs posted, the red marks where the bone should be, while the yellow marks where the bone actually is.

As we have mentioned before, periodontal disease is a painful condition. Between the smoothness of the cheek teeth and the painful periodontal disease, these are certainly contributing factors to this horse’s inability to properly digest his food and gain weight. This periodontal disease had also caused a tooth infection which was now causing his sinus infection. When periodontal disease has advanced to this point, the only course of treatment are extractions.

The extraction of the diseased teeth along with diet modifications will allow this horse to be more comfortable and regain weight. If your senior horse is looking thin, don’t say “Oh, it is just old age.” Instead, have your veterinarian out to do some investigating.

20/03/2025

We are proud to be a Monmouth County Hunt sponsor!

Thank you to Garden State Equine Dentistry for a Field Master Level sponsorship of our Silent Auction Fundraiser on Friday, March 28! (Buy your tickets at https://www.monmouthcountyhunt.com/silent-auction-fundraiser-2025)

Garden State Equine Veterinary Dentistry combines comprehensive equine dental care with exceptional service for horse owners and trainers. They are the only practice with a Board Certified Equine Dentist in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. As a critical component of your horse’s health care team, they complement and enhance the care that your horse receives from your regular veterinarian. This dental practice sees routine and referral cases at farms throughout central New Jersey, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and at their clinic in Princeton, New Jersey.

Find them online at gardenstateequine.com

19/03/2025

Nobody is perfect! Asymmetry in the upper or lower jaw can cause the incisors to wear unevenly and lead to a diagonal bite. In the case of this horse, his maxilla is deviated to the left. His incisors won't wear evenly because his nose is a little crooked.

Many owners may think that a horse with teeth like this will need them filed down and leveled, but in reality, more attention should actually be paid to cheek teeth. As long as their jaw can move properly from side to side, then the incisors won't need correction. Leveling incisors like this can actually cause more harm than good, specifically by potentially exposing the blood and nerve supply through excessive reduction of these teeth.

13/03/2025

We cannot stress enough how important yearly oral exams and preventative veterinary care is! The mouth of this senior fellow was in a sad state of affairs due to advanced periodontal disease (gum disease). In the photos, you can see the feed material packed between the mandibular cheek teeth. Imagine having food stuck between your own teeth but never being able to floss. This causes gingivitis, gum recession, bone loss, and infection. Periodontal disease is painful and progressive, but can typically be managed with diligent care.

How did this horse’s periodontal disease get so advanced? This horse had routine dental floats performed by a lay person (non-veterinarian). The oral exam was forgone, and thus the periodontal disease went undetected until it got to this point. Additionally, this horse had uncontrolled PPID (also known as Cushing’s disease), which suppresses the immune system and can make horses more susceptible to periodontal disease. The periodontal disease had advanced as far as causing significant bone loss, draining tracts from his mandible, and ulcerations in his tongue and oral soft tissues.

When periodontal disease is this severe, the only treatment are extractions. If we could go back in time, we would recommend two important things for this horse:

1. Testing for PPID, treating appropriately with an approved medication, and periodic re-testing to ensure that the horse is receiving the proper drug dosage in order to keep his levels within normal limits
2. Routine oral exams by a veterinarian with dentistry experience, monitoring of the periodontal disease using radiographs, and various treatment methods to help slow the progression of the disease

Horses are stoic creatures and may or may not show signs of dental pain. Oral exams are an essential part of veterinary care, just like vaccines. We recommend that owners of senior horses discuss the signs of PPID and any testing and treatment recommendations with their regular veterinarian.