Having had my share of equine dental problems, I
don't think vets can see or feel the molars properly without a speculum.
It will be interesting to see if your equine dentist uses a speculum without
sedation. I don't say it can't be done but if a horse has all that
hardware holding his mouth open and then decides to swing his head he could kill
some bystanders.
On the subject of sedation, I had a really bad
"near-miss" when a vet used Ace to sedate my gelding. She was floating his
teeth and he was holding his head up trying to evade the floating. We were
in the stall and he was backed into a corner. All of a sudden, the vet
picked up all her equipment and ran out of the stall, leaving me holding the
gelding and frankly befuddled. My horse then started to pass out, lurched
toward the other wall of the stall almost pinning me in the process, fell to the
ground and rolled out the eight foot opening, just managing to pick his head up
to prevent himself catching it on the wall and breaking his neck. Turns
out, Ace is known to make horses light-headed.
