09/23/2025
What is the difference between skilled dentistry and “floating”? Here is a recent case that we saw of a donkey living at a rescue/sanctuary. He has had routine floating, and the caretaker is very concerned with his welfare. At first glance in his mouth, I saw a “shear mouth” and very large ramps/overgrowth of the last molars on the bottom arcades. Clearly, nobody had worked on these for quite some time.
Shear mouth is a condition where the angle of the cheek teeth becomes so steep that chewing effectively cannot occur on that side. It often originates from pain/pathology/tooth fractures on the affected side. A thorough exam with the mirror did not reveal any obvious pathology (although we might take radiographs later, but he was quite the difficult patient to sedate). He also had atrophy of the temporalis muscle on the R side, confirming that he has not been using that side of his mouth.
The ramp on the last molar on the R side was embedding into the soft tissue, so possibly pain from that was causing him to avoid chewing on that side. This donkey seemed to realize that I was helping him, as despite his difficulty with sedation, he allowed me to work on that side of his mouth.
I made the first of a series of corrections to reduce the ramps and correct the table angle, and we will continue seeing him every 3 months.
