Introducing a special collection on equine dentistry and sinus disease

Introducing a special collection on equine dentistry and sinus diseaseIt is always exciting when a new compilation of research into equine dentistry and sinus disease is published.Although emergent mortality associated with dental and sinus disease is low compared to disease of other body systems, the incidence and morbidity are high, resulting in significant decreased quality of life, inability to work and elective euthanasia in some cases.The overall prevalence of dental disease has been reported to be as high as 93% 1 with 53% of dental disease identified being moderate to severe. 2 Moreover, dental disease is hard for owners to recognise.When veterinary oral exams were performed in a population of horses, 95% of horses had dental disease but only 24% of owners expressed concerns regarding the teeth and mouth.3 The prevalence of sinus disease is much less at 4% of the population.4 When primary sinus disease impacts the ability of a horse to breathe, it can be devastating and life threatening.Sinusitis secondary to dental disease can be crippling and chronic, and it has been reported to be responsible for between 24% and 62% of all sinus disease.[5][6][7][8] This demonstrates how closely dental and sinus health are related.Therefore, the impact of new oromaxillofacial literature can have an outsized impact on the quality of life of horses of all ages.The compilation of articles within this issue includes basic anatomy, 9 proteomics, 10 in-depth pathology descriptions, 11 and novel treatment modalities that improve a practitioner's ability to understand, recognise and treat equine dental and sinus disease.