tooth by tooth

Last week I discovered that one of Hearts permanent incisors wasn't growing correctly due to the baby tooth not wanting to let go. So today we had the dentist visit us to pull the baby tooth and do anything else that needed to be done. He floated Hearts teeth and shortened his canines so he wouldn't have any problems with the bit. The top left canine still hadn't broken through the flesh and was causing some pain. So with a tool that worked no different to a whole puncher he helped that tooth to get out by punching a whole in the flesh covering it. Now this sound brutal, but it does make sense. The whole is smaller than the tooth, so when the tooth pushes trough it stretches the skin and seals it at the same time. You could see Heart actually pushing against the "whole puncher". Our dentist, Ron, explained this, that by helping the tooth out it was taking the pressure of, hence lessening the pain. It's comparable with us having a big throbbing blister. If you poke it and empty it, the throbbing and the pain will stop.

Bella also had an appointment with the dentist. One of her molar caps that should have come of when she was 2 1/2 was still stuck. She had managed to break of half of it, but the other half would not come of. So Ron pulled that and floated her teeth at the same time.

Both horses were sedated while Ron worked on them... and I got a lesson on how to give a shot into the vein of a horse. After a thorough instruction, several dry runs and with Ron watching every move closely and helping a bit, I got to give Bella her shot. It's a strange feeling and I don't intend to do it by myself anytime. But it does feel good to know how to do it. Just in case there should ever be an emergency that requires it.

Gosh I learned so much today in such a short time. I feel my head is on overload. It's so interesting and everything makes such sense! There's some things I now know that really makes me rethink things people do. Things that up until now just were normal to me. I didn't even think about right or wrong because it's something everybody does, I grew up and was taught that way. But more to that in a following post...

Here are some pictures of the pulled teeth (caps). The big one is one of  Bellas top molars and the small one is Hearts bottom right incisor. It's the last cap Heart had to loos. He now has a full set of permanent teeth! You can see how long overdue Bellas molar was. She tried so hard to get rid of it, she broke half of it of and rubbed a hole into the other half...

top of molar. tip of incisor is pointing down.

top of molar. rubbed of side of incisor

bottom view of both teeth