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Horse teeth refers to the dentition of equine species, including horses and donkeys. Equines are both heterodontous and diphyodontous , which means that they have teeth in more than one shape (there are up to five shapes of tooth in a horse's mouth), and have two successive sets of teeth, the deciduous ("baby teeth") and permanent sets.
Equine dental technicians (also known colloquially as equine dentists, although this is not reflective of their official title) are veterinary paraprofessionals who specialize in routine dental work on horses, especially procedures such as rasping the sharp edges of teeth, also known as 'floating'. Scope of practice may be dictated by statute.
Horses select pieces of forage and pick up finer foods, such as grain, with their sensitive, prehensile lips. The front teeth of the horse, called incisors, clip forage, and food is then pushed back in the mouth by the tongue, and ground up for swallowing by the premolars and molars. [14]
In horses and most equines the cross section of the tooth at the grinding (occlusal) surface shows the roughly circular or ovoid infundibulum as the incisor begins to wear. [4] When the horse's incisor has grown in enough to connect with the incisor in the other jaw (lower jaw with upper), then wear begins as the horse grinds its teeth back and ...
An adult horse has between 36 and 44 teeth. The enamel and dentin layers of horse teeth are intertwined. [16] All horses have 12 premolars, 12 molars, and 12 incisors. [17] Generally, all male equines also have four canine teeth (called tushes) between the molars and incisors.
A few horses have one to four wolf teeth, which are vestigial premolars, with most of those having only one or two. They are equally common in male and female horses and much more likely to be on the upper jaw. If present these can cause problems as they can interfere with the horse's bit contact. Therefore, wolf teeth are commonly removed. [10]
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Wolf teeth are small, peg-like horse teeth, which sit just in front of (or rostral to) the first cheek teeth of horses and other equids. They are vestigial first premolars , [ 1 ] and the first cheek tooth is referred to as the second premolar even when wolf teeth are not present.