Legislation Page
Proposed legislation for equine dental technicians & the BEVA examination
Equine Dental Technician (EDT) Training and Examination in the UK
The term Equine Dental Technician (EDT) is the correct term for a layperson that has shown skill and experience in dealing with certain equine dental procedures. The law in Britain on equine dentistry (covered in The Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966) clearly specifies which equine dental procedures lay people can perform and which can only be carried out by registered veterinary surgeons. The current law, which will not be affected by new legislation due in shortly, allows certain designated routine equine dental procedures which are not considered to be acts of veterinary surgery to be performed by lay people whether they are trained or not. These are termed:
Category 1 Equine Dental Procedures and include:
- The examination of equine teeth
- Routine rasping (excluding the use of power dental tools)
- Removal of sharp enamel points and small dental overgrowths (less than 5mm high and involving less than half of the tooth's occlusal surface) with manual rasps
- Removal of digitally (finger) loose deciduous cheek teeth ("caps")
- Removal of calculus, which lies above the gum line.
A further group of procedures have recently been designated as advanced dental procedures. These procedures are at present deemed to be acts of veterinary surgery but are currently being deregulated by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons who are amending the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 to legally allow these defined procedures to be performed by qualified EDTs who have passed the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA)/British Veterinary Dental Association (BVDA) examination. These advanced equine dental procedures are termed:
Category 2 Equine Dental Procedures and include:
- Extraction of loose teeth, including both cheek teeth and incisors, including deciduous cheek teeth or teeth suffering from advanced periodontal disease. However teeth which have been loosened by trauma must have further investigation by a veterinary surgeon - including x-rays if necessary - before being extracted
- Extraction of normal, fully erupted and non-displaced wolf teeth
- Removal of large dental overgrowths (over 5mm tall and involving over 50% of the occlusal surface of the tooth) and overgrowths over 5mm tall of whole teeth.
- Techniques requiring the use of dental shears, inertia hammers and motorized dental instruments including power rasps.
- Treatment of fractured and diseased teeth.
- Extraction of dental fragments and palliative rasping of fractured and adjacent teeth.
Many of these advanced dental procedures will require sedation of the horse, which can only be performed by a veterinary surgeon. Additionally, many cases will require analgesics, anti-inflammatory and antibiotic treatment following the above dental procedures. These drugs can also only be administered by a veterinary surgeon at present. Certain equine dental procedures will not be deregulated to equine dental technicians and can at the present, and in the future only be performed by veterinary surgeons. These are termed:
Category 3 Equine Dental Procedures and include:
- Any procedure which involves making an incision (except elevation of the gum for the purpose of intra-oral extraction of teeth under veterinary supervision)
- Endodontics (root canal treatment)
- Orthodontics (e.g. bracing parrot mouths)
- Repair of mandibular fractures.
Currently in Britain a wide variety of lay people perform equine dental procedures. These vary from very inexperienced people, who have minimal training, but nevertheless perform advanced dental procedures, sometimes damaging equine teeth. On some occasions, they cause serious, even life-threatening injuries to horses' jaws, mouths and throats. Other people (sometimes referred to as "tooth raspers" - because that is basically all they are legally allowed to do in Britain) perform simple Category 1 procedures such as rasping off small sharp dental overgrowths.