34th Annual Scientific Meeting proceedings

Objectives:

To maximize masticatory ability and to ensure oral comfort geriatric horses often requires cheek tooth extractions. Specific age-related changes in equine dentition are a major factor in geriatric dental disorders and their treatment. Our study aimed to describe the clinical features, treatment, complications, and outcome of geriatric vs. non-geriatric horses undergoing oral cheek tooth extraction.

Methods:

Retrospective analysis of medical records of horses undergoing dental extraction (2018-2022). Clinical features, treatment and outcome were obtained for horses undergoing oral cheek tooth extraction. Descriptive statistics, simple and multi-variable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between age and clinical features. Level of significance was P<0.05.

Results:

305 horses undergoing a total of 447 dental extractions were included, 150 of these were ≥18years, and 155 horses were younger than 18years. Multivariable analysis showed that geriatric age at the time of dental extraction was significantly associated with the reason for extraction, with periodontal disease being the most common cause compared to apical and tooth infections, tooth fractures or other disorders (OR=12.5;95%CI:5.2-29.7;P<0.001). Further, presence of concurrent disease (OR=6.9;95%CI:2.8-17.4; P<0.001), extraction of >2 teeth (OR=2.4;95%CI:1.0-5.7;P=0.05), and a lower likelihood of receiving antimicrobial therapy (OR=0.5;95%CI:0.3-1.0;P=0.039) were identified in geriatric horses. There was no difference in occurrence of complications (P=0.236) or duration of hospitalization (p=0.177) between groups.

Conclusions:

The most common reason for cheek tooth extraction in geriatric horses was periodontal disease. Although geriatric horses more commonly encountered concurrent diseases, they required less often antimicrobial treatment and had no increased chance of complications.