NTED - Benefits of Proper Dental Care

There are numerous benefits to proper dental care of which are listed below.

1. Better health for the horse.   A horse that cannot masticate (grind) it's food properly will not be able to get proper nutrition from it's feed. This will lead to poor health, weight loss, vitamin, mineral and nutritional defeciencies, poor hair coat, poor hooves, overfeeding to maintain weight  among other health problems. 

2. Better performance and response to training.   Horses suffering from pain or abnormal pressure in the mouth due to dental abnormalities will not be focused on it's job or training. It will be more focused on getting away from the pain therefore, can be harder to get to respond to particular performance cues or training methods and be viewed as having a bad attituded or an unwillingness.

3. Lower risk of colics and chokes.  A horse that is not able to masticate (grind) it's food properly and completely will swallow it partially masticated.  Partially masticated food that is swallowed can lead to a choke because the food bolus is to large and cannot pass through the esophagus.  Partially masticated food that does pass through the esophagus and into the stomach is not able to be digested properly. Therefore, large particles of undigested feed can get trapped in the intestinal region causing a colic.

4. Better longevity of the horse.   Proper dental care and the ability for a horse to masticate it's food for maximum nutritional, vitamin and mineral intake, will have better health and therefore,  be able to perform and live longer.

5. Lower cost of feeding.  With proper dental care along with the ability for a horse to properly masticate it's feed for maximum nutritional intake, allows a horse to stay fuller longer. This is a tremedous benefit for horse owners because they are able to maintain their horses weight and health on less feed, almost cutting their feed bill in half.