I only use vets. However, like everything else vets vary in their skill level with teeth.
There are two local vets who seem to do a decent job on teeth, not too invasive (beware the over-floater, lay or vet!) but gets them in nice shape.
Indiana. I’ve paid around $100/float recently. One guy is a tooth specialist and charges around $250 per horse for a dental exam which is a bit more involved than just a float.
[QUOTE=Justmyluck;8636492]
I pay $200 for power floats because hand floats are essentially useless.[/QUOTE]
Why do you think hand floats are essentially useless?
[QUOTE=Justmyluck;8636492]
How do you think your lay dentist got his start he had to start somewhere? Think when he was just getting started he had done ‘a lot’ either?
I pay $200 for power floats because hand floats are essentially useless.[/QUOTE]
My rockstar lay dentist was an intern with another lay dentist for 3+ years before he went out on his own. I remember as a kid the two of them would tackle either side of the aisle, stall by stall. Now Rockstar would check with old Rockstar before during, and after each mouth.
I need to move somewhere else from where I’m located (west coast not CA). Good luck finding any vet here who will do a manual float. Last manual float my (now dear departed) gelding had was in 1994 and the charge was $150 which included the farm call. Everyone in my area uses power tools. Power tools, IMO, are the incompetent’s excuse for continuing to “practice” veterinary medicine. Power tools plus rigging to hold the horse’s head high high high plus speculum cranked til the sedated horse is groaning in agony. Tab, $300 to $1800 (an out-of-stater who “makes the rounds” on this side of the hill starts at $1200 but that includes the farm call). The $300 and up is the typical local vet charge for a dental and that does not include farm call, does not include the exam fee on top of the farm call, and does not include sedation. Just the tooth work. Supposedly in my state it is illegal for anyone not a licensed vet to perform any medical procedure or treatment on a horse not their own, which pretty much stopped the horse dentists who weren’t veterinarians - yup, the horse dentists whose skills were incredibly awesome, who never needed sedation, and who never left a bloody mess in a horse’s mouth.
If I sound venomous about this, the last power-tool licensed tool that worked on one of my horses, killed that horse. (I still had to pay the bill.)
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;8636856]
Why do you think hand floats are essentially useless?[/QUOTE]
I have to agree wth this one - why pay for a manual float which can only do half the job? A straight rasp can’t possibly get evenly around round tooth surfaces and if sedation and a speculum aren’t being used, there is no way the back teeth are being thoroughly done. I’d rather pay more for a better job that needs to be done less frequently.
I do use a vet for teeth, but he’s one who specializes in equine dentistry and sports medicine. Our regular vet is great in most other ways but does a pretty half-assed job with teeth, which I’m discovering is not at all uncommon.
Southern Maine. We have a fantastic lay dentist who gets a lot of referrals from the vet. Back when I ran our barn day for boarders, we would have both the vet and the dentist there all day, so there was no problem if sedation was needed.
Basic hand float is $50 plus the barn call. He came last week and split that 3 ways, between 2 of us at my barn, and the neighbor next door where they were going next. (Vet was there doing shots and chiro.)
He has an amazing way with the horses, and many who have been sedated in the past are fine without it. He also reviewed his training and “internship” with me when we first started using him, so I am confident he is well trained.
Used to be that dental work was not a high priority and I don’t think vet schools gave much time to teaching it. Times have changed and there are more vets who take the time to become expert.
With laws that only allow vets to give sedatives, the local guy who floats teeth, and does farrier work, is becoming less in demand.
I know that our fellow did an ok job, but the manure told the tale. When the vet did a mechanical job with sedation, there was a huge difference, and not that much difference in cost, for us, anyway.
I’ve had only hand floats with my pony and never had any trouble with her mouth, chewing bitting or otherwise. On the other hand, the one time I had a vet do a power float was on my then 25 year old mare. He took so much off her teeth that she could no longer get enough out of her hay and had to be fed beet pulp mash for her last year. So I don’t agree that power tools are necessary or do a better job.
As they say : “A razor in a monkey’s hands.”
I see more bad happen to horse teeth with the power tools, than would happen with manual work when Dentist gets tired, checks teeth progress more often! We have some big name horse Dentists, both Vet and Dental qualified, charge an arm and two legs for cost. Horses have issues after, teeth die from being too hot with the power tools used too long on it. Horses ALWAYS need sedation when power tools are used.
I try to stick with the manual floating, have enough experience at seeing GOOD floats, the manipulation of jaw to test that work is completed well, that my horses get good work done on them. Dentist/Vet does do the WAYYYY back teeth and gets them nicely smoothed by reaching in there. I watch him do it, he points out problems when starting, what he did when finished, horse is NOT sedated and stands just fine. No need to “recover” from the work.
I don’t think the “extras” sold by the power tool folks are truly needed, just and excuse to charge more in most cases. Bit seats are a big one, grinding off tooth they should have left alone.
Power tools do take off too much, way too quickly, and as others mentioned, cause a lot of problems with teeth too short. There just is no “Putting it back on the tooth” tool available to fix the incompetent tooth butcher’s work for the horse.
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