A long-term study on the clinical effects of mechanical widening of cheek teeth diastemata for treatment of periodontitis in 202 horses (2008-2011).

The research article describes a long-term study on the clinical results of mechanical widening of cheek teeth gaps (diastemata) for the treatment of gum disease (periodontitis) in 202 horses. The study was undertaken to ascertain the success and viability of the procedure in providing relief and curing the disease.

Methodology

• The study is retrospective in nature and analyzes the medical records of horses with cheek teeth diastemata that were treated by diastema widening at the University of Edinburgh Equine Hospital between 2008 and 2011.
• During this period, 302 horses were diagnosed with significant cheek teeth diastemata, out of which 202 horses, with an average age of 11 years, having severe associated periodontitis were chosen for the treatment.
• A total of 674 problematic diastemata were widened with 1.5 treatments used per case on average.

Results

• The common symptoms observed in the treated horses included feed dropping or “quidding” (76.2%), weight loss (33.2%), bitting issues (20.1%) and bad breath or “halitosis” (10.9%). 5.4% of the cases however showed no symptoms.
• Upon analysing follow-up data of 92% of treated cases (average 20.8 months after the initial treatment), it was found that 72.6% of horses had a complete remission of clinical signs. This remission was permanent for the duration of the study in 50.5% of the cases and temporary in 22%. 17.2% of the cases registered a partial response, 4.3% showed no response and the owners were unsure of the response in 5.9% of the cases.
• One notable discovery was that clinical improvement was sometimes delayed and took over 4 weeks following treatment in 19% of the cases.
• In 6 cases, the widening procedure was accidentally performed at inappropriate sites on individual teeth, thereby causing pulpar exposure in 2 cases. However, none of these horses developed clinical signs of apical infection subsequently.

Conclusions

• The study concluded that diastema widening is an effective albeit potentially invasive treatment for horses with cheek teeth diastemata suffering from severe periodontitis.
• The researchers expressed that diastema widening should ideally be performed by trained personnel, particularly in advanced cases of cheek teeth diastema, as many cases were found to require repeat treatments.