You are so right…..I wouldn’t let a doctor do surgery on me unless he had gone through the proper training with someone who is qualified. I don’t want to be the first one he works on either. And when it comes to my animals that goes twofold. 👍
That's so true. After almost 40y of equine practice, about 25 only dentistry in Finland, I've noticed that often there is not a one and only solution to many problems, dental as well. And maybe more often people seem to concentrate on the wrong finding not seeing the the basic problem in the mouth. Years should make you humble.
You've hit the biggest issue. My region in N Idaho is small, very old fashion dentistry with the DVM'S(even newly graduated). I'm a student with AED(met you there) and I can't get any vet support with sedation. They're vocal behind their objection to dental practitioners...but they won't look into what the school teaches either. I'm a farrier & have many customers current on dental knowledge & practitioners(requesting the practitioners...but the vets won't cooperate with their requests to be present for medical support. I choose the school because I had a practitioner do my performance horses (but wouldn't be continuing work in my area)...and I couldn't bring myself to submit my horses to the local vets again after what advancements the practitioner introduced me too. But now I can't do any dentals in my area in order to advance in my classes. Do you have any advice for how a practitioner can function & navigate in order to get experience?
I’m an equine veterinarian. My opinion of unlicensed equine dental practitioners is not that they necessarily do a worse job floating teeth than I or any other vet would do. Anyone can balance a mouth if they’ve seen enough cases and have had the right education. My hesitancy towards seeking their help or referring cases is both liability AND that their abilities are severely limited. What happens when I sedate a horse for a lay floater in my state? First of all it’s illegal which I morally disagree with and it threatens my license and reputation. Secondly, now because I am the licensed veterinarian, if the horse becomes painful or develops a dental disease following the work, there are no repercussions for the lay floater, it’s my name, license, and income the client will come after. The lay floater will go back to whatever state they came from and I’ll be left high and dry. As for their abilities, how can lay floaters call themselves “equine dentists” when they themselves cannot perform the most basic of diagnostics or treatments for complex dental disease. The term “dentist” confuses clients into thinking they must have the same level of training as human dentists and this could not be further from the truth. And finally, as a veterinarian who happens to enjoy dentistry, I want to be able to follow a patient from point A to B and so on throughout their care without losing money to someone with lesser education and lesser financial investment in their education. Hopefully this helps you understand where some of these doctors are coming from.
