Standing intraoral extractions of cheek teeth aided by partial crown removal in 165 horses (2010-2016).

This research article looks into the success and complications of a new technique and instrumentation for extracting diseased teeth in horses. This method involves partial crown removal and was performed on 165 horses to determine its efficacy.

Background and Objective

• Problematic cheek teeth in horses often require extraction, which is usually done through invasive methods. However, these methods are accompanied by a high risk of complications.
• The researchers of this study hoped to develop and test new techniques and tools that could simplify the extraction by aiding the procedure through partial crown removal.
• The study aimed to assess the success rates and the occurrence of post-surgical complications in horses that underwent this new form of cheek teeth extraction.

Methods

• They performed a retrospective cohort study which included 165 horses that had 194 diseased cheek teeth.
• The procedure for extraction involved partial crown removal and was performed between 2010 and 2016.
• Information was garnered from medical records, including case details, relevant radiographs, surgical reports, and follow-up details.
• Tracking the health status of the horses after surgery, follow-up information was derived from 151 horses around two months after the extraction.

Results

• The use of partial crown removal resulted in successful standing intraoral extraction of cheek teeth in 164 horses out of 165, showing a high success rate of 99.4%.
• The process, however, displayed some limitations as 25 horses required additional intraoral extraction techniques, including minimally invasive transbuccal approach (21 horses) and tooth sectioning (4 horses).
• Intraoperative complications were minimal with fractured root tips found in 11 horses out of the entire cohort, amounting to 6.7% of the cases.
• Postoperative complications were even rarer with such instances occurring in only 6 out of the 165 horses. This is a meagre 3.6%. These included alveolar sequestra, mild delays in alveolar healing at two months, and the development of a persistent draining tract secondary to a retained root tip.

Conclusion

• Considering these results, researchers concluded that the new technique for cheek teeth extraction — particularly through partial crown removal — is highly successful and accompanied by low post-surgical complication rates.
• They recommend further training and specialised instrumentation for carrying out the technique effectively.
• The prognosis for a positive outcome using this method is excellent, thereby suggesting its value in veterinary practices for horses.
• The researchers propose the term ‘partial coronectomy’ for this procedure.