Equine Dental Services Ltd | Berkshire

The appointment & what to expect

First and foremost you can be rest assured that we are members of the BAEDT. This provides you with the peace of mind that we are fully insured, have been examined to a very high standard, have had our work reassessed within the last 3 years and are completely up to date with CPD.

We generally leave a 30 minute window to allow for traffic, we will contact you if we are running late.
On arrival we will discuss your horse and gain some background information such as age, any known dental issues as well as dental history. We know many of our patients very well and have treated them on numerous occasions so a more informal catch up may be had, though it is still important that we are made aware of any changes.
We will examine your horse externally. Do not be offended if we mention the overall body condition of the horse, this can give us an indication of potential dental issues although it must be said, do not assume that just because your horse is on the “tubby” side, that his or her teeth must be perfect. This may often be the case but horses are very stoic so there could just as easily be all manner of issues going on without you knowing.
We will take a closer look at the horses head. We will look for anything that could indicate dental disease or problems such as lumps, bumps, swellings, nasal discharge or pain associated with us palpating (touching) a certain area.
We will then move onto the teeth themselves. First checking the incisors (front teeth) before placing the speculum on to the horses head to hold the horses mouth open, this allows us to examine the horses mouth and teeth accurately. We will flush the oral cavity thoroughly and use a light source so that we can examine, in detail, the molar arcades. We will use mirrors, picks and probes as and when necessary.
We will discuss our findings and treatment plan so that you have a clear understanding of what is going on and please do not be scared to ask questions. We actually enjoy educating our clients so it’s definitely not too much trouble!
We will carry out the necessary treatment. Most of this will be carried out using the most up to date battery powered machines. These are extremely safe in skilled hands and the vast majority of horses tolerate them very well, they are very quiet whilst enabling us to work with a much greater degree of accuracy than the old manual style tool.
Once complete we will document our findings, discuss your horses treatment going forward and recommend a time frame for a subsequent appointment.
Then it's a thorough scrub up! We take this very seriously and always thoroughly clean and disinfect all equipment when we have finished.