Equine dental care has transformed with the adoption of power floating. Understanding appropriate dental welfare and the role of registered equine dental technicians is important for horse owners.
Equine dental welfare has improved dramatically with the professionalisation of equine dentistry and the adoption of power tools that allow complete oral examination under sedation. A horse with untreated sharp points lives with daily soft tissue pain that affects eating comfort, weight maintenance and ridden work. Because horses cannot open their mouths on command for examination, many dental problems go undetected by traditional manual examination. Sedated power floating allows visualisation of the entire oral cavity and treatment of conditions that manual methods miss. Regular annual checks as standard care prevent the accumulation of dental problems that cause preventable pain.