Wolf teeth and their extraction

Abstract

Summary The equine first premolar or ‘wolf tooth’ (Triadan 05) is a normal vestigial tooth, which is often absent, but when present most commonly lies rostral to the second maxillary premolar (Triadan 06). The routine extraction of wolf teeth has been performed historically and is contentious, but clinically indicated in some instances. This review article aims to summarise concisely the limited peer reviewed literature on wolf teeth and to describe the practice of their extraction. Extraction is usually performed in the standing sedated horse, and complications are avoided with good surgical planning, analgesia and instrumentation.

Origins of equine dentistry

“…BCE. The estimated age of these and later Iron and Early Middle Age animals with evidence for dental extraction falls between a tight age range of 1-2.5 y (Table 1), strikingly similar to the average age of 1.4 y reported for modern wolf tooth extraction in some veterinary reports (27). The coincident timing between the regional appearance of metal bits and the initiation of wolf tooth extraction suggests that the adoption of metal bit technology prompted innovations in equine dental practice, which had been initiated, perhaps for the first time, by nomadic herders living in Mongolia several centuries before.…”

“…Because of its forward position in the mouth, it may interfere with the normal activity of modern bits and cause pain or tissue damage (26). As a consequence, it is standard practice for all horses to have wolf teeth removed at a young age, typically between 1 and 2 y of age (27). Beyond this, many horse dentists also recommend "flotation" of the upper and lower second premolars, a sometimes controversial practice alternatively referred to as a "bit seat."…”

Tooth replacement in Manidens condorensis: baseline study to address the replacement pattern in dentitions of early ornithischians

“…one or both sexes developed the reduced tusks but in later stages of ontogeny). The presence of supernumerary teeth in a diastema recalls the caniniform (albeit derived from the premolar series) ‘wolf teeth’ occasionally observed in modern horses (Hole 2015). Size‐correlated and/or age‐correlated addition of tooth positions is well documented in both mammalian (Miles 1963; Grant 1982) and reptilian (Westergaard & Ferguson 1987, 1990) ontogeny.…”