There seems to be quite a bit of self-promoted literature out there about natural balance dentistry without much of a rebuttal. I am skeptical because I find most “natural” horse things to be hogwash. But I am willing to give things a try as well. So I defer to you all- can someone more knowledgeable than I please enlighten me?
I looked into it a year or so ago but, the cost was at least three times a regular dental check so I didn’t give it a try.
My equine dentist is a Natural Balance practitioner. I find that her pricing is about the same or slightly cheaper than other dentists and vets.
After seeing fellow boarders deal with cracked teeth from the heat of the dremel and too smooth teeth causing improper grinding and chokes, I opted for my current dentist. I have not had any problems with either of my two horses she’s worked on. In fact, NB dentistry was the only thing that improved my mare’s slight feed dropping from her overbite. Prior, she’d had three different dentists, all which used dremels, with no difference.
As far as “natural”, I don’t find the method to be “woo-woo” at all (I also don’t believe in Chiro or massage for horses; that’s another story but you get an idea of where my mind set is). My molars (used for grinding) aren’t perfectly smooth, why should my horse’s be? In order to grind correctly, there needs to be some resistance, hence leaving slight ramping on the lateral side of the teeth.
I find the method to keep the integrity of the teeth and not changing much, just keeping things from getting too out of hand.
I believe Equine Dentists should be trained and licensed vets, just like human dentists graduate from medical school before specializing.
A new slogan I heartily believe in is No Tooth No Horse
A horse suffering with a mouth issue can cost an owner a lot of time money and heartache.
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Very few veterinarians in my area do any dental as vet school does very little training in it. Almost all defer to the power floaters. I suspect that is the case in a lot of areas, therefore, I’d rather have someone that has immersed themselves in the education available (ongoing education), specializes and takes their time than a veterinarian who had at most a semester of general large animal dental or someone who took a two week school and wields a power tool.
Luckily, my veterinarian supports my decision and will stick around to discuss cases with the dentist.
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I tried a NBD this year. My gelding has always thrown food all over the stall and barn aisle, even after having his teeth floated. BTW I’ve never used a dentist who did power floating–always hand floating. I’ve had a couple different dentists and the vet float teeth and it never improved the food slinging. After the NBD I haven’t noticed much food on the floor at all. Another plus–this dentist was much more attentive to the comfort of the horse while being floated. He would float for a short time, then release the speculum while he rinsed the float, switched floats, or whatever. My horses were much more calm and accepting of the procedure. My former dentist just cranked open the speculum and expected the horses to tough it out until he was finished, and he spent a lot of time in there. I think after a few floats the NBD could actually do it without tranq. As for the vet, two years in a row I was told the horses had a few minor points but didn’t need a float. :no: The NBD was a bit more expensive than the regular dentist but so worth it.
I have never heard of anyone making the teeth perfectly smooth.
A good example of how vets can not win. If they said you needed a float every year there would be a post how the vet is taking you for all the money they can get. They were honest, and now they were wrong for that.
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Every experienced veterinary dentist I’ve spoken to in the last decade has been very vocal about the fact that it is not possible to do as thorough and appropriate a float with hand tools as with power tools. Yes, power tools can be misused in the wrong hands, but so can hand floats!
I would never, ever allow someone who wasn’t a veterinarian to float my horse’s teeth. Aside from the lack of knowledge/accreditation issues, horses must be sedated for a proper examination and float, and it is illegal in most states for non-veterinarians to medicate horses they do not own.
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OP- I notice you are not far from me in Tennessee. In the past couple years, many of the barefoot trimmers in this area have been promoting this form of dentistry. I have heard them make many ridiculous claims about what this form of dentistry can do for your horse, and none of the claims were either realistic or logical.
Here is my issue. The founder of this group lists no credentials except for his certification through his own organization! No college degree listed, no Master’s degree listed, no PhD listed. No background in equine science or animal science. The main qualification he lists on his Facebook page and the organizations website is that he grew up on his parent’s dude ranches. In my world, that does not make you qualified to work on my horse.
Vets do get more training concerning dentistry in vet school than what most people think. Many take extra courses in it because they know if they specialize in horses it is an added service they can offer horse owners.
Would you yourself go to a dentist who you cannot find what their qualifications are?
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How can any one not “believe” in massage therapy for any athlete? Muscles are muscles. Movement is movement. And strenuous, forced work is serious work for muscles.
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I’m a physical therapist and I can’t really sit here and tell you that massage is really going to address any medical issue an athlete might have. The evidence for massage is really weak, therefore, insurance does not typically cover it. I guess you could say I don’t believe in massage because I would never tell a patient to go out and get one.
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I’ve had a tendency towards muscle spasms in my back that can be pretty debilitating if they get out of control. Good rmt massage can head them off early on and regular massage has been an important part of keeping them at bay. Now muscle spasms may or may not count as a medical condition because they don’t show up on x-rays. The only remedy my GP could offer was muscle relaxant drugs that make you mildly stoned. Massage on the other hand keeps me mobile. And I am very lucky that my employets extended health insurance covers it. Here in Canada it is standard for extended benefits to cover massage along with other things like dental and vision care that are not covered by the provincial health insurance.
Anyhow since my personal experience suggests massage is useful, I can’t see why it wouldn’t also be useful on horses. At the least it can break up problems caused by overly tight muscles.
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I have always had my vet do my dental work for the legal reasons listed above. In my state it is illegal for anyone who is not a vet to perform equine dental work. I had just heard about NBD and wondering other peoples thoughts.
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Here it is not illegal to do the work but, a vet must be the one to drug. So I pay the vet to administer meds and then she stands around while the guy floats the teeth. I think it’s a bit of a scam but, that’s the way it is. We used to have a guy that was self trained in teeth and chiro. Freaking magician!
From the Cochrane Review, my go to source when I want to quickly get the bottom line regarding evidence for an intervention:
“We have very little confidence that massage is an effective treatment for LBP. Acute, sub-acute and chronic LBP had improvements in pain outcomes with massage only in the short-term follow-up. Functional improvement was observed in participants with sub-acute and chronic LBP when compared with inactive controls, but only for the short-term follow-up. There were only minor adverse effects with massage.”
So basically it works in the short term but it really doesn’t get to the root of the problem. Muscle spasms are generally caused by some underlying condition or cause and don’t just spontaneously occur. If you had continued with your GP (at least from the US perspective) they probably would have eventually ordered an MRI if your pain had continued so the root cause of the spasms could be addressed. Only 10% of low back pain becomes chronic so a wait and see approach is a valid option before moving on to more expensive intervention.
I don’t understand. What do you mean by “medical issue”? Of course MT isn’t going to help a broken bone, or a ruptured ACL, but it’s sure as heck going to do a lot of good towards helping knots and spasms find relief. That does’t mean the knot is the primary problem, it may well be a symptom, but finding relief in a lot of things goes a lot faster if you can address symptoms along with root causes. Even if all you know, at any point, is there are knots, at least helping alleviate them will keep things from getting worse while you’re still looking for the underlying problem. Why would anyone not provide palliative support while looking for and then also remedying the original issue?
When my horse severed his extensor tendon, and a few years later ruptured his peroneous tertius tendon, there’s no way his muscles remained soft and pliable and healthy while he was compensating for months. And there’s no way those tense, knotty muscles would have spontaneously resolved once he was fully weight-bearing and fully mobile again.
Every physical therapist I have worked with or known, including personal experience with a Sports Medicine clinic, recommended massage therapy to help alleviate secondary problems caused by the original issues.
The evidence for massage is really weak, therefore, insurance does not typically cover it. I guess you could say I don’t believe in massage because I would never tell a patient to go out and get one.
Weak evidence?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14717648
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24586677 <-- warrants more study
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/19078022 - fibromyalgia, this, and quite a lot more studies I found, all found decreased cortisol levels pretty quickly, and that’s important in pain management
http://annals.org/aim/article/716463/review-evidence-effectiveness-safety-cost-acupuncture-massage-therapy-spinal-manipulation?year=2003 “nitial studies have found massage to be effective for persistent back pain.”
There are a great many more studies on a variety of symptoms which support the valid use of MT, even if it’s only in the arena of helping reduce pain while the underlying issue is resolving (if it even can be resolved)
You don’t believe because you’d never recommend it? That doesn’t make sense.
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Of course, there isn’t any implication that all LBP can be solved by MT. And barring an actual initial injury TO a muscle, the spasms/knots/etc are not generally the issue (as well as not massaging acutely injured muscle). But certainly there are LBP (which is just a symptom, not a diagnosis) that is primarily caused by muscle issues, and for some of those MT might very well be a major solution (if not the solution)
But they definitely do become problems (muscles) when there are other issues, particularly if those other issues are causing compensation which over-load supporting muscles.
I have spondylolisthesis. That’s my diagnosis via xrays. As long as I keep my entire core strong, and don’t allow my hamstring muscles to tighten, I’m good. If I let any of those suffer, I’m more prone to developing a sudden muscle spasm issue in my low back. What helps? Massage. Every time. Not sure how you’d get out of that situation without it.
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I can so relate to the post that said “no teeth no horse”. I’ve always had my horses teeth looked after by professionals. I am not into blame games for things that can’t readily be proved without falsely accusing someone. Besides that, no one has a perfect score, we’re all human and if you do stuff enough times; there will be mistakes made. Somehow my horse has a TMJ fracture. One way of this sort of thing happening is by someone using a speculum and applying too much pressure. Everyone should be familiar with where this joint is. I can’t imagine having a good competition horse and finding yourself with this issue. Unfortunately halter buckles tend to be right at that joint, not to mention bridles. Perhaps he pulled back somehow and did it, but I think there is WAY too many people looking to make a living on this stuff. You may be surprised at how little training your ‘professional’ actually has. A lot of us like to use these pink salt licks with the string thru them, their awesome - but in addition I would beg anyone to consider where they hang it very strongly too as I don’t dismiss the possibility of a horse in the dark looking for that last morsel of food to inadvertently rap his side of his head on it and fracture unbeknownst to you… Or if they suddenly spook they could be injured if they bumped into it.
Before you get your horses teeth done again, look closely at him or her at their face for symmetry and for the love of your horse - get the bare minimum done and send them packing…you may call to get their teeth done so they take the bit better only to find out its worse and now your horse has chewing issues which is heart breaking…
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Well, I don’t in fact have lower back pain. My spasms are in my upper back, wrapping around my rib cage, and can involve my neck and shoulders. My pain is quite clearly muscle, and I think I’ve had radiographs done of it at some point, with nothing showing up.
If someone had lower back pain because of disc degeneration, which is a common cause, it is correct to say that no amount of massage will fix the discs, and at best would help with muscles seizing up in response to pain. Ditto if the lower back pain was caused by an actual strain or sprain of the muscles.
Anyhow, my condition is semi-chronic in the sense that if I don’t take care of my back, which includes protocol at the computer, I will have a tendency for the spasms to re-occur. At this stage though I can generally manage so that they don’t, or so that I head them off very early. The root of the problem, as far as I can tell, is incorrect posture and use of my body 
and there is no underlying injury.
In terms of a “wait and see versus more expensive intervention,” I’d definitely say that $100 to go to the RMT is neither an expensive nor an intrusive intervention, especially when covered by extended benefits!
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