ANIMAL DENTISTRY. 255 



consists of first attending to the molar teeth, and of feeding 

 in such a manner as to effectually prevent rapid eating. 

 Nose-bag feeding should be discontinued. When horses are 

 fed in harness the grain. should be spread upon the ground 

 over a large surface. In the stable the feed box is taken 

 out and the grain is spread over the entire surface of the 

 hay manger or upon the floor along the front of the stall. 

 Rapid eating under these circumstances is impossible and 

 the habit will soon be abandoned. Specially appointed feed- 

 ing troughs which allow the food to flow slowly outward as 

 it is eaten are commendable. 



WADDING OF FOOD IN THE CHEEK. 



The accumulation of food between the cheek and molar 

 arcades is a common aberration. It is caused frequently by 

 a serious dental disorder — fissured molar, loss of the outer 

 half of a molar crown, elongation that wounds the cheek, 

 etc. The most obstinate form of this disorder, however, is 

 due to a defect in the buccinator muscle. The defect may 

 be either a partial or complete paralysis, which may be 

 either co-existent with a general facial paralysis (see facial 

 paralysis, page 248) or which may exist as a circumscribed 

 paralysis of the muscle itself. The cause of the paralysis, 

 when circumscribed, is usually a trauma of the buccinator 

 branch of the seventh nerve as it passes superficially over 

 the masseter. A lacerated wound over the masseter, that 

 divides the continuity of the branches of the nerve, is always 

 liable to be followed by this condition. 



Impactions of food in the cheek are also caused by 

 wounds of the buccinator muscle which interfere with its 

 normal contractility. A trivial surgical or accidental wound 

 may disturb the function of this highly motile muscle suf- 

 ficiently to interfere with its function throughout the re- 

 mainder of the animal's life. And finally cicatrices of the 



