Alaskan brown bear has new smile after getting huge metal crown for canine tooth

An Alaskan brownish carnivore astatine the Lake Superior Zoo successful northeastern Minnesota has a gleaming caller silver-colored canine bony aft a first-of-its-kind procedure

DULUTH, Minn. -- An Alaskan brownish carnivore astatine the Lake Superior Zoo successful northeastern Minnesota has a gleaming caller silver-colored canine bony successful a first-of-its-kind process for a bear.

The 800-pound (360-kilogram) Tundra was enactment nether sedation Monday and fitted with a caller crown — the largest dental crown ever created, according to the zoo.

“He's got a small glint successful his grin now,” zoo selling manager Caroline Routley said Wednesday.

The hour-long process was done by Dr. Grace Brown, a board-certified veterinary dentist who helped execute a basal canal connected the aforesaid bony 2 years ago. When Tundra reinjured the tooth, the determination was made to springiness him a new, stronger crown. The titanium alloy crown, made by Creature Crowns of Post Falls, Idaho, was created for Tundra from a wax caste of the tooth.

Brown plans to people a insubstantial connected the process successful the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry aboriginal this year.

“This is the largest crown ever created successful the world," she said. “It has to beryllium published.”

Tundra and his sibling, Banks, person been astatine the Duluth zoo since they were 3 months old, aft their parent was killed.

Tundra is present 6 years aged and, astatine his afloat tallness connected his hind legs, stands astir 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall. The sheer size of the carnivore required a subordinate of the zoo's trained equipped effect squad to beryllium contiguous successful the country — a weapon wrong arm's scope — successful lawsuit the carnal awoke during the procedure, Routley said. But the process went without a hitch, and Tundra is present backmost successful his habitat, behaving and eating normally.

Other veterinary teams person not ever been arsenic lucky. In 2009, a zoo veterinarian astatine Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium successful Omaha, Nebraska, suffered terrible injuries to his limb portion performing a regular aesculapian exam connected a 200-pound (90 kilogram) Malaysian tiger.

The tiger was coming retired of sedation erstwhile the vet inadvertently brushed its whiskers, causing the tiger to reflexively wound down connected the vet's forearm.

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