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Associated Press

An Alaskan brown bear at the Lake Superior Zoo in northeastern Minnesota has a gleaming new silver-coloured canine tooth in a first-of-its-kind procedure for a bear.
The 360kg (800-pound) Tundra was put under sedation on Monday and fitted with a new crown – the largest dental crown ever created, according to the zoo.
“He’s got a little glint in his smile now,” zoo marketing manager Caroline Routley said on Wednesday.
The hour-long procedure was done by Dr. Grace Brown, a board-certified veterinary dentist who helped perform a root canal on the same tooth two years ago.
When Tundra reinjured the tooth, the decision was made to give 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 publish a paper on the procedure in the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry later this year.
“This is the largest crown ever created in the world,” she said. “It has to be published.”
Tundra and his sibling, Banks, have been at the Duluth zoo since they were three months old, after their mother was killed.
Tundra is now six years old and, at his full height on his hind legs, stands about 2.4 metres (eight feet) tall.
The sheer size of the bear required a member of the zoo’s trained armed response team to be present in the room – a gun within arm’s reach – in case the animal awoke during the procedure, Routley said.
But the procedure went without a hitch, and Tundra is now back in his habitat, behaving and eating normally.
Other veterinary teams have not always been as lucky. In 2009, a zoo veterinarian at Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska, suffered severe injuries to his arm while performing a routine medical exam on a 90kg (200-pound) Malaysian tiger.
The tiger was coming out of sedation when the vet inadvertently brushed its whiskers, causing the tiger to reflexively bite down on the vet’s forearm.


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Tundra the bear has a shiny new smile after getting huge metal crown for tooth

Tundra, an Alaskan brown bear, is seen in an undated image before undergoing a procedure for a new canine tooth at the zoo in Duluth.  Photo: Lake Superior Zoo via AP

Tundra is fitted with a new metal canine at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth on Monday. Photo: Lake Superior Zoo via AP

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World

United States & Canada

The 360kg animal was fitted with the largest dental crown ever made in a first-of-its-kind procedure at a Minnesota zoo


The 360kg animal was fitted with the largest dental crown ever made in a first-of-its-kind procedure at a Minnesota zoo.


United States

Tundra the bear has a shiny new smile after getting huge metal crown for tooth

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The 360kg animal was fitted with the largest dental crown ever made in a first-of-its-kind procedure at a Minnesota zoo

The 360kg animal was fitted with the largest dental crown ever made in a first-of-its-kind procedure at a Minnesota zoo