It's pretty much business as usual for a dentist, right? Crack a tooth? They simply install a crown.
But not all procedures are created equally - in fact, you might call it the dental procedure of her career.
Two Harbors veterinary dentist Dr. Grace Brown didn't want to hear any patient growls as she carefully placed a crown over the cracked tooth of Tundra. Who is Tundra? Just a 6-year old Alaskan Brown Bear who resides at at Duluth, Minnesota's Lake Superior Zoo. Brown was hoping Tundra channeled his inner-Gentle Ben.
"And we had to trust that the anesthetic was going to be efficient enough, and enough for the time of the procedure," Dr. Brown told WCCO's Adam and Jordana. "So there's a lot of trust that's involved, and a lot of teamwork."
Brown said it's the largest veterinary crown in the world and no simple piece of craftsmanship either.
The crown was hand-poured by Idaho-based Creature Crowns, and it is designed to last Tundra's lifetime.
All funding for the procedure was donated to help out the 800-pound bear.
"He had his original root canal and his restoration done at the age of 4, and then he woke up this winter after hibernation and had chipped off - or wore off - the composite restoration," Brown explained.
Tundra first fractured his tooth back in 2023 but reinjured the area. So the zoo needed to get this massive, custom-made crown to keep that tooth protected for the rest of his life.
Brown said the specially-designed metal crown was placed one of his upper canines.
There's no word yet when Tundra will be back out for people to view at the Lake Superior Zoo, but they expect a full recovery for the newly silver-toothed behemoth.
"We are incredibly proud of the collaboration between Minnesota Veterinary Dental Specialists, Creature Crowns, iM3, and our zoo team. All of Tundra’s care was donated—and we couldn’t be more grateful," announced the Lake Superior Zoo on Instagram.
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 3 months old, after their mother was killed.
Tundra at his full height on his hind legs stands about 8 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, zoo marketing manager Caroline Routley said. But the procedure went without a hitch, and Tundra is now back in his habitat, behaving and eating normally.
The Lake Superior Zoo is a nonprofit and they do rely on admissions, fundraising and donations to operate. If you're interested in supporting the zoo, please click here.
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 200-pound (90 kilogram) 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.