Horse sense helps with treating horses’ teeth
Marlboro vet finds
special niche with Equine Dental Services
JERRY WOLKOWITZ Veterinarian Dr. David Foster smooths Lola’s front teeth during her yearly dental exam last week in Millstone.
MILLSTONE — His patients may not get Novocain, but it is very common for them to be tranquilized.
David Foster, V.M.D., is both a veterinarian and a horse dentist, and spends his days making sure his equine charges’ mouths are in proper balance for chewing, as well as using the bits used for riding and driving.
Foster, a Marlboro resident, worked as a general equine practitioner until an encounter with an aged pony changed the focus of his work.
"Twelve years ago, I was on a routine call for a wonderful client," recalls Foster. "She had her original pony from childhood. The pony had lost weight, was doing poorly, and she called me in. I determined after an exam that dental problems were most likely causing the lack of conditioning."
The owner called in a lay dental technician, just about the only people who were doing equine dentistry at the time. "I sedated the pony, he examined her, and we worked together. I realized this guy didn’t know much more about dentistry than I did. They didn’t teach dentistry in vet school. I left the call and decided to learn as much as I could about equine dentistry," Foster said.
Back then there were no schools for equine dentistry, so what Foster learned "was derived from people in the same situation as me." Now he teaches in clinics, and the American Association of Equine Practitioners offers special educational classes on dentistry.
After working as an associate at the N.J. Equine Clinic, Millstone, for 11 years, Foster decided to go out on his own and specialize in teeth. He opened Equine Dental Services in 1996. While he has many local clients, his practice ranges from eastern New York to northern Maryland, as well as eastern Pennsylvania and all of New Jersey. He recently returned from a trip to the Albuquerque Zoo, where he worked on a camel. He treats horses from all walks of life, from racehorses and show horses to dressage and pleasure horses.
"Horses’ teeth are different from people’s," explains Foster. "Their teeth push out of their mouth and get worn down over the course of their life. It’s like the lead in a pencil. Teeth are worn off on an abrasive diet of hay and grass. If they had teeth like ours, they would wear out in a few years."
He added, "Horse teeth are highly specialized. They are dependent on even wear. Most don’t wear evenly and must be kept balanced by dentistry. There can’t be excessive wear in one part of the mouth."
He compares it to rotating the tires on a car: "You know the tires will wear out, but they can be used for 50,000 miles instead of 35,000 miles."
He notes dentistry is especially important because horses are living longer. "In 1979, when I graduated from vet school, horses generally lived to be about 23 or 24. Now, just 23 years later, many horses are living into their early 30s or beyond." He attributes this jump in longevity to the dewormers, vaccines, and high quality feeds which have become available in the past two decades.
According to Foster, "Dental care used to be done by veterinarians. When horses stopped being used for transportation and the military, vet schools stopped teaching dentistry. There was a vacuum, and no market for anything exists in a vacuum. The lay dental technicians fulfilled the need.
"From the 1920s until the 1990s, most dental care was performed by lay people. As medicine is a science and an art, there was no evolution. The average dental tech is working pre-germ theory. They don’t consider antibiotics or bacterial infection to be an issue. They are practicing state of the art dental care circa 1890."
He points out that in previous centuries, human dental work was often performed by barbers, whose expertise consisted of extracting teeth. "They may have been good, but they couldn’t get better. They had no educational underpinnings. Vets go to school for four years for a reason."
In his opinion, "many [lay dental techs] are uneducated. When you don’t have to worry about your license, [clients] don’t know what they’re getting. The average consumer of dental care for horses wouldn’t have any idea if the techs did a good job or not."
While the field was left open to lay people for many years, things are changing. "In the last 10 years, since vets have become interested again, there has been a tremendous influx of new techniques and concepts, especially with geriatric horses. Now dental technology is changing and progressing very fast. There are complex medical problems which are not just tooth problems — such as tumors and skin diseases — and lay techs have no ability to cope with these problems."
He has respect for some good lay technicians, but "they are people who know their limitations."
Foster, who started riding at age 6 while growing up in Union County, has never been seriously injured on the job, although this can be a dangerous profession. "You must use common sense and be careful," he said. "You must have horse sense."