St. Louis Post-Dispatch carried a story on August 28, 2000 by Jeremy Kohler profiling a vet who specializes in equine dentistry:

* Allen says that convincing veterinarians to look at horses' teeth has been "like pulling teeth," though such comments have irritated some veterinarians.

Dr. Tom Allen's patient, a quiet 9-year-old from De Soto, is unfazed while Allen unpacks his nightmarish dental tools: monstrously long files and carbide burrs attached to power drills and electric saws, a sackful of syringes and a six-inch wide speculum designed to crank the patient's mouth open wider, wider.

The patient stands calmly with eyelids drooping into slits. A cocktail of tranquilizers and pain killers, shot through a syringe into her neck, is taking some of the edge off.

Deep inside, perhaps, she senses that what's about to happen will be good for her.

Then again, Lady is a horse. So who really knows what she's thinking. Complaints about toothaches aren't heard straight from the horse's mouth.

Maybe that's why veterinarians such as Allen, who specialize in equine dentistry, are a rare breed. Allen says that fewer than 200 horse dentists work in the United States, so he's in demand - from Pennsylvania to California.

Allen opened his practice on Highway 110 near De Soto in 1994, but six months ago he moved to Patterson, Mo., about 120 miles south of St. Louis.

Most of his barnyard calls are between Springfield, Mo., and Springfield, Ill., and many are in the St. Louis area.

Allen has made a career of convincing horse enthusiasts that many equine illnesses start with bad teeth and that many horses die from mouth infections that could have been prevented if someone had thought to make them open wide.

Allen's Web site, www.horsedentist.com, may be the most complete Internet site dedicated to equine dentistry and is certainly the easiest to find.

While the debate over the practice has increased in recent years in equestrians' magazines and journals, Allen's World Wide Web site is the only one that search engines, such as Yahoo and Excite, can locate with the keywords "horse" and "dentist."

To prove how serious equine dentistry can be, Allen carries with him the skull of a horse whose cause of death probably was listed, he says, as liver failure.

On the contrary, Allen says the horse died of osteomyelitis, a bone infection that started in its mouth.

An overgrown molar juts out from the jawbone, clearly having obliterated the opposing teeth and underlying bone, which is porous, as if once filled with pus.

Allen says the infection probably migrated to another part of the horse, where it became fatal.

A human with the same problem, left untreated, would have met the same end, he says. But because dentistry is integral to our health care, most people avoid such problems.

Allen's chief goal, when he's visiting a horse, is to remove the razor-sharp points that develop on their teeth and irritate and cut into the horse's mucous membranes inside the cheek.

It's his belief that most veterinarians ignore those points and allow them to do more damage to the horse's mouth.

Allen claims to have improved one stallion's ability to make foals by eliminating dental points that were distracting the horse from its duty as a stud. "Just call me Dr. Ruth," he wrote on his World Wide Web site.

'He has no proof'

Many veterinarians, however, disagree with Allen's theory that dentistry is vital to equine health.

To most horse owners, dentistry remains an alternative medicine in the same class as acupuncture or chiropractic medicine for humans.

At no major university is equine dentistry a course of study. Most veterinary programs, including the University of Missouri, one of the nation's elite veterinary schools, relegate horse dentistry to a single lecture.

"That's a shame," Allen says. Convincing veterinarians to look at horses' teeth has been, he says, "like pulling teeth."

Such comments have irritated some veterinarians.

Dr. Nat Messer, an associate professor of equine medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri, says Allen has no proof for his claims that teeth are responsible for many equine health complications.

Messer says the university gives adequate treatment to equine dentistry, compared to the vast amount of knowledge veterinary students must digest.

"It's only important because he thinks it's important," Messer said. "We see 10 or 15 cases of equine neurologic disease for every one dental problem.

"My big rub is that he's publicly denigrating our curriculum, when we told him clearly that we don't have time to give (to equine dentistry) what he thinks is adequate treatment."

Criticizing vets "is a way for (Allen) to promote himself and make himself look like an expert in the eyes of his clients," Messer said.

Making a comeback

Even skeptics of horse dentistry can't deny it's making a comeback among equestrians. The topic has been discussed more vigorously at seminars and in journals, in recent years.

Horse dentistry was more common in the 19th century, when horses were man's primary mode of locomotion. The rise of the automobile relegated horses to sport, and horse dentists, more or less, disappeared.

But the last decade's emphasis on preventative medicine has reached the equine world, and horse dentistry, says Allen, is on its way back.

At least two companies are offering equine dental equipment, much of it furnished to fit electric drills and saws.

Lady's owner, Beth Ross, says that some of her peers say she's wasting her money by hiring Allen. But most also are turning to nontraditional veterinary medicine, she says.

Some people are even using acupuncture and chiropractic therapy for their animals.

Lady, a brown Missouri fox trotter who was the world's second- best in show in 1995, has perfect incisors and even rows of teeth inside.

But a few have developed sharp points that irritate her cheeks. And one of her pre-molars is a little too long and may require attention in the future, Allen says.

One of his next patients isn't in as good shape, however. Liz Drew of Troy, Mo., learned that Allen was going to be in De Soto and brought her handsome saddlebred, Charlie, to Ross' barn.

Like a child fearing the dentists' chair, Charlie flatly refuses when Drew tries to pull him into the barn, a parallel that is not lost on Allen.

"I know this is a dentist's office," says Allen, translating Charlie's stoic refusal to enter. "I'm not going in there."

Charlie is a mess. He misbehaved while Drew was showing him at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. While he used to be good-natured, now almost anything seems to hurt his feelings. Charlie used to enjoy shows and did well when he was younger. But lately he's been bucking and keeping his head down and acting strangely antisocial.

"For Charlie to be telling me, 'I hate doing this,' is a major personality change," Drew says. She believes that dental problems are to blame.

"This horse's whole understanding comes from a bridle in his mouth. If your mouth is not feeling comfortable, how are you going to learn?"

Allen gives Charlie a tranquilizer in the neck and then an anesthetic in the mouth, inserts the speculum and opens the mouth. He grimaces at what he sees. Charlie is missing two incisors, and a splinter-like tooth is digging into his gums. Pointing to a tall molar on Charlie's lower jaw, he tells Drew that the tooth could burrow through the opposing jaw within a few years. And most of his teeth have developed sharp points that are scraping into his cheek.

Allen goes to work, removing the rough edges and sanding down the remaining incisors until they're even.

"I think you're going to see a world of difference in this guy," he tells Drew. "I bet you see it the next time you ride him."