Kentucky Equine Veterinary Dental Specialists, LLC

08/06/2025

Good morning from our newest staff member, helping with radiographs!

08/02/2025

How to Read Your Dental Chart, Part 3!

Have you ever had a cavity? Horses get them too! Just…a bit different. We call them infundibular caries and we have a specific way that we grade them depending how much of the tooth is affected.

Here is how you may see it written on your charts:
INFC or CA/INF

We will write the “grade” ahead of it and note whether the mesial (M) or distal (D) aspect of the tooth is involved, or both.

Our grading system looks like this:
G1- involves cementum
G2- cementum and enamel
G3- cementum, enamel, and dentin
G4- tooth fracture/ splitting
G5- tooth loss

This is something we definitely want to monitor closely in all cases, as it can definitely progress. We certainly don’t want it to get to the point where the whole tooth is affected, so in some cases, we will do restorations. Have you ever had a filling?

The photos attached are from a horse whose 209 (upper left cheek tooth) had G3 infundibular caries. The horse came into the clinic for a restoration of the mesial infundibulum after radiographs had shown no apical changes to the tooth and no fluid lines in the sinuses.

You may be wondering how we restore (fill) these teeth? 🧐
It’s actually quite similar to how we have our own cavities filled!

🦷 A Hi-speed dental fissure bur is used to clean the walls of the infundibula and to help remove feed material.
🦷 Once cleaned, the cavity is air dried and an L-Pop Self-Etch Adhesive is applied into the entire surface of the cavity for 15 seconds.
🦷 It is air-thinned and then light-cured for 10 seconds.
🦷 The infundibula is filled with a flowable
dual-cure composite (Startfill) and light-cured for 20
seconds each layer.

07/31/2025

How to Read Your Dental Chart, Part 2!

Below are some abbreviations you may see on your charts pertaining to rotations and malocclusions:

DLrot 🦷 Distolingually rotated, the distal (back) aspect of the tooth is rotated inwards towards the tongue (clockwise).
MLrot 🦷 Mesiolingually rotated, the mesial (front) aspect of the tooth is rotated inwards towards the tongue (counterclockwise).
PV 🦷 Palatoverted, the tooth is tilted inwards towards the palate/tongue.
BV 🦷 Buccoverted, the tooth is tilted inwards towards the cheek.

This physiology is pretty common and is generally nothing to be concerned about, though we do like to keep an eye on them. That being said, this is another great reason to have routine and thorough dental exams to ensure your horse’s mouth is happy and healthy!

07/30/2025

Wild Wednesday!

This yearling filly was brought into our clinic after having sustained an injury to her 601/201 (incisor) during a thunderstorm. The deciduous 601 was extracted successfully and we made the decision to leave the incoming permanent 201 in place for now. We look forward to seeing this sweet girl again for a recheck in 60 days!

We were also able to extract her 205 (upper left wolf tooth) 🦷

07/21/2025

For the first installment of "How to Read Your Dental Chart Series:"

Let's talk about diastema!

Below are the abbreviations you may see written in your horse's chart:
D/N,V (most common) - narrow valve
D/O,N - open narrow
D/O,W - open wide
D/W,V (least common) - wide valve

A diastema is essentially a space between the teeth - more commonly the cheek teeth, but we do see our fair share between the incisors as well. Diastemata are most commonly caused by a malocclusion, which will subsequently lead to food impaction, then periodontal disease. If identified early, the inflammation can be halted or sometimes reversed. When unmanaged or diagnosed in later stages, permanent soft tissue and bone loss may have already occurred.

Given the amount of food impaction, and if a perio pocket is involved, we will sometimes perio-flush the affected area and if needed, pack with a perioceutical/antibiotic.

07/18/2025

07/11/2025

Holy hooks!

This sweet miniature donkey will be feeling much better after we did what we could at this appointment to reduce these hooks and flush out several diastemata.

07/09/2025

It’s a Wild Wednesday in incisor land!

As you may have noticed, the horse in the last photo is missing her incisors 🤔 this horse previously had EOTRH surgery. When we do routine exams for these horses, we wrap our speculum with cotton to ensure they are as comfortable as possible.

06/25/2025

We are so proud of this horse! Back in 2023, this Norwegian Fjord came into Dr. Jack Easley’s clinic with raging sinusitis. It was a tough case that would require a lot of treatment! Long story short, Dr. Rainbow ended up taking ownership of this little unbroke horse. After flushing the sinuses multiple times and extracting a tooth, Dr. Rainbow spent 60 days treating a persistent oral-sinus fistula before everything finally healed. After giving him the summer off, he went into training with Working W Training and eventually made his way back to his breeder who placed him with Brielle! All the Best Brielle and Dreamfields Kanin (AKA : Sushi!)