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Discussion on My colt seems to have pulled a baby tooth out of alignment.
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Member:
Heidih
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Posted on Monday, Dec 15, 2003 - 11:10 am:
I have a 10 month old colt that looks like he caught one of his front teeth on something and pulled it out of alignment a bit. The tooth is forward of his other front tooth by approximatley 1/8 to 1/4 of an in. It looks quite odd, but he doesn't seem to be in any pain and he seems to be eating normally. The gum doesn't look swollen or bloody at all, but it does look like the whole tooth, including the root is pulled forward a little. Is this something I should be concerned about? Is it worth calling the vet out on if nothing else seems wrong?
I'm not sure when he did it, obviously some time over the last week. He's turned out 24/7 with another young colt and I don't get there before dark most of the time, so I didn't notice it before yesterday.
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Monday, Dec 15, 2003 - 10:00 pm:
Is the tooth loose, or firmly in place? I think that what might happen if the primary (baby) tooth is out of virtical alignment with the developing secondary underneath is that the primary tooth might not get pushed out when the secondary tooth comes in and will have to be pulled out. Or, if the tooth is loose (or was loose) enough that it has been severed from it's blood supply, it will die and probably either fall out or need to be pulled out. In a person, the primary tooth holds a space open for the secondary tooth. When a tooth is missing, the other teeth will drift and fill up the space that the permenent tooth should have. That's why kids should have "spacers" put in when they loose a primary tooth prematurely. I don't know if this happens with foals. (I worked as a dental surgical nurse, but don't know for sure how much people and horses are alike.)
We had a colt pull out one of his primary teeth, but he was old enough that the permenent tooth was right underneath it so it didn't really matter.
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Member:
Heidih
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Posted on Tuesday, Dec 16, 2003 - 4:20 pm:
Thanks for the information Sara.
Right now the tooth doesn't seem to be loose. Neither does it seem to be dying. However, I'm not exactly sure what a dying tooth looks like. There is no color change, nor does there seem to be any pain or swelling.
I guess my biggest question is whether a malaligned baby tooth will cause major problems with his permanent teeth. At 10 mos. old, I don't think there's an adult tooth waiting to come int. I'm going to try to get some pictures this weekend and I'll try to post them.
Thanks again.
Heidi
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003 - 12:00 am:
A dying tooth would darken as a rule and would eventually break off or fall out.
If the tooth isn't very much out of alignment I would doubt that it will have any affect on the permenent tooth. If it's really in the wrong place, or up in the front of the gum, I'd keep an eye on the teeth on either side of it. Maybe even take a measurement. If you notice any drifting towards the empty space, I'd see if I couldn't get a dentist to make a space maintainer for the colt. Just an stainless steel band cemented around one tooth with a heavy duty loop of the same metal that goes across the space to the next tooth so the teeth can't move into the gap.
I think horses are like humans in that they are actually born with tiny tooth buds for all their teeth. If they tooth buds are damaged, the new tooth won't develope properly or won't develope at all.
I'll look for your pictures. Meanwhile, Dr. O. will probably let us know how alike people and horses are dental wise. 
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Member:
Heidih
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 21, 2003 - 2:58 pm:
Ok, I took some pictures that show what he did fairly well. It's been at least a week. I discovered the problem last Sunday, so I don't think the tooth is dying. It's definitely out of alignment though. Here are some pictures.
Dr. O do you think I will have to watch the alignment of his teeth or have any dentistry done to correct his bite?
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Sunday, Dec 21, 2003 - 11:50 pm:
Heidi-great pictures! Is the tooth stable/tight in the gum? It doesn't look too bad imo. If it were a person I'd suggest having an xray taken, but I'm not up on horse dentistry. I'll be curious to see what Dr. O. has to say.
Little horses are a "bad" as little kids, huh?
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Dec 22, 2003 - 6:38 am:
The color looks normal from your pictures (that is iron staining from the forage) but I cannot really assess alignment a full frontal and both sides with all the teeth (upper and lower) exposed would give me a better idea of what you are dealing with. I see many young horses with some really funky looking deciduous incisors and even early eruption permanant teeth that straighten up fine.
DrO
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