I am also in Canada, and my horse got her teeth done in Jan 2021. The price for the service itself was $158. Then she also needed about $60 worth of sedation. Call fee waived. All in all my bill was $225 + tax.
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I was spoiled by using a local backwoods old school veterinarian for the last few years, who probably is more of a cow vet than a horse vet (I had his dental work checked by a friend who has a right to an opinion, and my horses said that the job was adequate). Paid about $125 per horse. I was quite happy with this situation. But he retired, and last year, I had to go elsewhere. Paid twice as much. Not complaining, I was spoiled previously.
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Ooh, this sounds like someone I used to use for my gelding. He was a travelling dentist, came highly recommended and would do the entire barn when he came. Only used hand tools and didn’t sedate unnecessarily. I remember he picked-up on a big ramp in my gelding’s mouth that other vets had missed, and an overgrown tooth at the back that he took some crazy oversized dog nail trimmer-like tool to and sliced it right off. That was ages ago, however, and I no longer have his contact info.
There’s another travelling dentist I’ve been tempted to reach out to, who is also a vet, but specializes in dentistry. I’ve seen a lot of recommendations online for him, and figure he can’t possibly be much more expensive than what I just paid so I may try and set something up for next year with him 
(Just thinking out loud here … !)
I currently pay $100/horse for a non-vet dentist. I’m local enough that my farm call fee is waived. We power float and 2 of my 3 are fine without sedation and I give my senior dorm gel. I’ve used several different dentists over the years (vets and non-vets) and I’m happiest with my current dentist who is constantly taking continuing education courses and leaves us with dental charts for each horse. It’s fantastic. My boys get checked every 6 months.
My vet does most of the dental work for the vet practice and she’s fine, but I’ve gotten more info from my current dentist than I’ve ever gotten from the vet. I think I spent $225 for the vet including sedation?
I paid just under $200 a horse all inclusive for a dentist DVM that only does teeth. He travels on the weekends and goes to a farm close to me two times a year. He also does zoo animals. He sedates and has dental charts which he stores digitally so he can quickly see the history on your horse before he starts working. He also uses a speculum and lights and shows you anything that he sees that is a problem or is abnormal. I hope he never retires.
The bolded is NOT something to brag about. There is a very good chance he opened a pulp chamber with that maneuver, and quite possibly killed the tooth.
Who’s bragging?
Your post reads like you were listing things he did that you liked?
I was simply describing the tools and methods he used. The only thing I knew that I liked was that he didn’t sedate unless the horse needed it. Besides which, liking something doesn’t equate to bragging about it.
I meant it a a figure of speech. If I had said “nothing to write home about”, would you be insisting you never got out a pen and paper? The point was that chopping through a tooth like that is a bad idea.
This is a brag. Last week I got an exam and float (non-power, no sedation, extraction etc.) for free. My little mare was a model for a webinar being made for Humane Society Vet Med Assn (HSVMA). 'Cus she’s such a good girl and loves the lights and cameras. The webinar will be used for teaching equid vets in Third World countries, primarily in Central and South America.
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Mine were done in 2020 and I paid $ 185 each.
Power float, sedation and farm call.
$60-85, depending on the amount of horses being done. Mine are all done by a well regarded equine dentist (not a vet) who does a lot of the eastern seaboard.
Where I grew up, all the dental work was done super sedated by vets. They would get out ropes to hold the horses heads up from the rafters. Then I moved to Florida. The first time I needed teeth floated there, I called the vet and the vet said ‘oh, we don’t do that. Call this guy. He’s the equine dentist in the area. If you horse is crazy I’ll come with some sedatives’ who did it for $50.
Ever since I’ve had equine dentists do my horses, and I have to say I much prefer it. All of my horses get it done without sedation. Even the 17.2h OTTB (who I was sure would kill the guy) did amazingly. The mini mule has even decided it’s no big deal (and she about killed the vet doing fall shots). It’s just a much nicer experience for everyone than the days where they sedated my horses until they were basically falling over, and then you had to withhold hay for several hours.
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I pay a non-vet dentist $80 (no farm call) to file my horse’s teeth annually. He does use a speculum but gives the horses frequent breaks. He uses hand tools and no sedation. He travels all over the state and arranges visits by geography so that he doesn’t have to charge a farm call. My mare behaves well for him and seem to like him a lot.
If a horse requires an extraction (other than wolf teeth), he does require the owner to set up another visit with a vet on hand to arrange sedation (or have the vet do the extraction if he isn’t available).
