I was there early so that my horse Calvin could go first. He’s nervous about noises and things happening at the barn, so I figured it would be better for him to go first than to hang getting himself wound up. I brought him into the barn aisle and let him watch while Dr. Mike set up shop. We laughed that I probably wanted Calvin to go first because I was nervous. Might have been true.

Dr. Mike’s easy manner puts the horses (and owners) at ease. He gives each horse a once-over and listens to his heart before administering a sedative. When the horse is sedated, Dr. Mike uses a speculum to hold the horse’s mouth open, and he rests the apparatus on a support. After a good look around inside the horse’s mouth, he uses power tools to get any job done quickly and efficiently, then a drug to reverse the sedation, and the horse is good to go.

We had a discussion of dentistry without sedation vs. sedation and the power tools. Dr. Mike said that without a speculum and good light, you won’t find many of the problems horses have. But with sedation and the right tools, a skilled veterinary dentist can do a much better job and much quicker, which is easier on the horse.

Dr. Mike wears a light on his headband, and he shows us what he’s looking at, looking for, and what he’s found. We were amazed to see that even in this well-cared-for group of horses, there were problems that really required dental attention. Two older horses each had a broken tooth, and my horse had sharp points on one side that had caused ulcers inside his cheek.

But the most amazing find was on one older horse who has the best of care — including yearly floating in the traditional, non-sedated way. That horse’s incisors and front molars looked okay, but the back top teeth were about an inch-and-a-half longer than the other molars and digging into the lower jaw. No wonder the horse had a hard time chewing and holding weight! Dr. Mike says that good dental work is the cheapest thing you can do for your horse for a year, and considering how much feed that one horse was getting (and dropping), that makes sense.

During the course of the day we talked about various things that have their basis in dental problems. For instance, he mentioned that dogs who get aggressive all of a sudden frequently have tooth problems. We talked about horse bit problems, and how horses can’t tell you they are having tooth problems. Often when a horse is fussy with a bit or holds his head sideways, he’s trying to avoid pain. One mare with a broken tooth is fussy to bridle, and Dr. Mike said that she was likely afraid someone would bump her painful tooth putting the bit in her mouth. We talked about how a flash noseband pulls the cheek tissue against the horse’s teeth, so if you’re going to use a flash, you’d better be sure the horse doesn’t have sharp points.

We each came away feeling like we’d spent our time and money wisely and that our horses’ choppers are in good shape for munching the carrots we inevitably bring.