Sage is a 7 year old paint mare who presented with a hard lump on the right side of her mandible (jaw) which was mildly painful to touch. To investigate the cause of this swelling, radiographs were taken of the area which revealed a tooth root abscess with an alveolar bone infection of the tooth 107 and surrounding bone. 

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The decision was made to extract the tooth to prevent further spreading of the alveolar bone infection and a potential sinusitis occurring.  The tooth was also quite painful for Sage. 

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The extraction was performed at our clinic as a standing surgery under a constant rate infusion with a nerve block to desensitise this side of the mandible, as well as gingival nerve blocks. 

 

The tooth was extracted cleanly and Sage recovered well from the surgery.  She was kept on soft food for 2 weeks following the surgery, while the socket re granulated. 

 

Unfortunately due to the alveolar bone infection, the socket did not regranulate straight away.  Multiple episodes of flushing and curetting the area were required to remove dead and infected bone before it was able to heal fully. 

 

Once all of this infected bone was removed the socket healed and Sage was able to return to a normal diet and to being ridden again!