First Teeth
Humans get their first tooth at between 6 and 10 months and by 21 years old they should have a full compliment of between 28-32 teeth.
Horses get their first tooth at 8 days old and by 6 years old they should have a full complement of up to 42 permanent teeth.
THATS A LOT OF TEETHING IN A VERY SHORT PERIOD of their first 6 years of life!!
Size of Teeth
Human teeth are about 2cm in length whereas a horses tooth can be over 10cms!!
Type of Tooth
Horses teeth are hypsodont which means they continue to erupt at about 2-3mm a year throughout their life to compensate for the constant wear occurring on the surface of the tooth as they eat.
Human teeth are brachydont which means if you over wear your tooth there is no reserve.
Positioning of the Teeth
You should be able to appreciate from the picture below that the upper jaw of the horse is WIDER than the lower jaw so the surfaces of the upper and lower cheek teeth do not completely slide over one when eating …. hence we get over growths on the outside of the upper cheek teeth and the inside of the lower cheek teeth ( see green arrows) which cause ulcers to the cheek and tongue.
Thats those overgrowths we always talk about, and because you now appreciate that the teeth are constantly erupting, you can appreciate why the teeth need regular rasping!!
Colour of Teeth
Human teeth are white because they are covered in white enamel.
Horses teeth are yellow because they are covered in cementum.
So don’t be whitening your horses teeth, they are supposed to be yellow!!!