Sam thrills to whole tooth (From York Press)

Equine dentist Sam Norris thrills to whole tooth

11:04am Friday 25th November 2011 in Turf Talk By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

WHEN it comes to equine dentistry, horses don’t just have to grin and bear it.

If a thoroughbred is suffering pain, a neigh, frankly, doesn’t get the job done. Unlike the famous Mr Ed of the 1960s American television series, the average racehorse can’t tell you where it hurts. That’s where Samantha Norris comes in.

The 30-year-old knows her way around the inside of a horse’s mouth.

Running a practice out of Church Fenton, Norris did not fall into the industry by accident. Following a roll-call of jobs which included six months with Tadcaster trainer Tom Tate, mucking out and riding horses up the gallops, she decided she wanted to specialise.

“I had been at various yards working for other people,” Norris explained.

“I decided that, to make a career for myself, I had to specialise in something, you’ve got to be good at a discipline in this game – otherwise I would just be a mucker-outer.

“I saw an advert, it cost £3,000 to go to Wales for two weeks on a course. I knew nothing about horse dentistry but I thought ‘if I don’t go I’ll never know if I can do it’. I spent the money, went down there and learned the basics.

“I didn’t do much for about six months afterwards but Sally Kingsley, who is a vet specialising in equine dentistry, was looking for an apprentice and my farrier recommended me to her. I was head-hunted, if you like. She just rang me up out of the blue. I was really lucky.

“I’ve trained with Sally for five years and it is only in the last year I have gone more on my own. I’m aiming to become a member of the British Association of Equine Dental Technicians.”

There is little worse than toothache for us, but Norris reckons equines are a hardier breed. They also have very different mouths.

“They can’t tell you if there’s a problem,” she said.

“It’s amazing what a horse will put up with – pain-wise – and it’s only when they hang, or evade the bit in some form, that some people think we had better get their teeth checked, rather than having them checked on a regular basis.

“We have teeth that last a lifetime of wear. A horse’s teeth erupt constantly throughout their lifespan. It’s a bit like a lipstick. You use it and it gradually wears down. That’s what a horse’s teeth do as they are grazing and grinding.

“The lower jaw is slightly narrower than the upper, so the uppers cheek teeth overlap the lowers. As the horse chews it wears the teeth away and sharp edges are left on the outside of the uppers and the inside of the lowers. Pressed against the soft tissue by a bridle, that can cause painful ulcerations.

“The incisors are the front teeth and there is a gap between those and the cheek teeth, called the interdental space which is where the bit sits. Like humans, they have baby teeth and they lose them like a child would lose theirs.

“The central incisors fall out at two-and-a-half years old, the laterals at three-and-a-half and the corners come out at about four-and-a-half. That’s how you can age a horse as a youngster.

“This also happens to 12 of the cheek teeth, at about the same time. All together there are 24 teeth that are changing from baby to adult teeth between the age of two and five-years-old. There’s so much activity and that’s just a snippet of it.

“As the new teeth come through they often get eruption cysts and you can imagine when seeing them that there is some sensitivity in the jaw bone.”

All of which is rather significant for horses on the racetrack, particularly those on the Flat, who are racing frequently in their two and three-year-old careers – precisely the time they are losing and gaining a new set of gnashers.

And that’s not the only problem that can affect the racing breed.

“Racehorses can be inside a lot of the time,” Norris said.

“They have a long neck and are designed to graze from the ground. If they are confined in a 10 by 12 stable, 24/7, they get fed out of a manger that might be at waist height and they get more concentrates than hay.

“Basically, they are eating from a height and, because of this, the head is up and the lower jaw drops back. What happens is that the back of a lower cheek tooth gets what we call a ramp. It takes a couple of years to develop and you see it more in horses that have come out of racing. It’s a problem.

“It traps behind another tooth so, when the head comes down, the horse can’t relax the lower jaw because the tooth is catching on the opposing upper cheek tooth. At the front of the upper cheek tooth, you get an overhang which we call a hook.

“It completely locks the horses backwards and forwards motion. If a horse has these hooks and ramps, which are quite common, they get painful tension in their jaw joint. It makes me wonder if, by preventing the problem with regular treatments, it would improve performance on the track.

“Basically I round all the sharp edges and balance the mouth like a farrier would balance the horse’s feet. You wouldn’t race a horse with long toes.”

Norris’s job is about prevention. When it comes to abcesses, cavities and extractions, it’s time to call the vet in. But Norris works closely with her surgical colleagues and hopes the racing yards will soon come calling.

For more information about her practice, log on to the Sam Norris Equine Dentistry website at www.snedt.com, follow her on twitter @snequinedentist or email her at sammynorrisedt@hotmail.co.uk