Sierra's new owner noticed he wasn't eating well and was very dehydrated. He wanted to see if floating his teeth again could solve the problem. Before I saw Sierra, his teeth had been floated several times over the years.
Sierra - 18 year old Quarter Horse
This is his lower canine tooth on his right side. Tooth number 304. It erupted forward instead of upward and now it has cracked. The black area below the finger is where the crack is and food has impacted in the crack and is decaying. When his mouth is closed, the upper canine does not touch the lower.
11-2-06 Working with Dr. Kevin May, radiographs of the tooth and jaw are taken to see the depth of the root and if the decay has gone into the jaw. The exterior portion of the tooth will need to be extracted as you can see it is hollow and decaying. The concern is how deep the decay has gone in the root of the tooth and if it can be cleaned and filled to stop the decaying and strengthen the root or if the entire tooth will need to be extracted.
If we don't do this, the decaying would eventually go into the jaw and compromise the jaw - perhaps to the point of fracturing.
A great recovery in just a month! I took this with my cell phone so the color is off a little.
12-14-06 Radiographs indicated that the entire canine tooth including the root need to be extracted. The decay has gone into the root, but hopefully not completely through.
The decayed part of the canine tooth that you see in the above picture has easily been removed. Now we are elevating the gum tissue from the reserve crown and root of the tooth. Once the tissue is completely separated from the tooth, it can then be extracted.
More elevating of the gum tissue. This was acually the longest portion of the surgery.
Here you can see the cavity left once the canine tooth, root and all has been extracted. It was a very large tooth. This will all fill in over the next few weeks. While it is healing Sierra will need to continue the antibiotic treatment he has been on and the area will need regular flushing to rid any food debris from the area.
In this picture I am holding the decayed section of the canine so you can get an idea of its size. This will be significant when you see the next shot.
Here you can see all three sections of the extracted tooth. To the left is the decayed section I was holding in the above picture. The center piece was the portion protruding from the gum that the forward section of the canine had broken from. The section on the right is the reserve crown and root. This is the portion that we elevated the gum tissue from before removal and also by its removal has left the large opening in the gum seen above.
Always the picture taker, never in the pictures. Here from left to right are Dr. Kevin May, Sierra - our wonderful patient, and Doug his owner. You can just see the smile on Sierra's face now that the surgery is over. He stood through the entire surgery and will be home in an hour.
1-12-07 I spoke to Doug and Sierra has recuperated wonderfully. The gum has completely filled in without any infection and Sierra is a very happy camper. He has already started to put on weight. In a few months we will Float Sierra's teeth and he will be good as new.
1-21-07 I ran into Doug trail riding Sierra and took the opportunity to take a picture of how well the gum tissue has healed right over where the canine tooth was extracted.
Hook 
