What makes sharks such finely tuned biting machines? Their choppers, of course. In honour of Shark Month at the Discovery Channel, we’ve compiled a list of fun facts about shark teeth. Sink your teeth into these nuggets: The outside of shark teeth is made of fluoride, which is the active ingredient in most toothpaste. This … Read more
A gorilla named Oscar Jonesey, or O.J., was knocked out and taken for treatment to the San Francisco Zoo hospital. Once at the hospital, the western lowland gorilla underwent a three-hour root canal procedure to save an abscessed tooth. The silverback male was also in the dentist’s chair the previous year, when he got another … Read more
Tigers are just like humans: the older they are, the more likely they are to have issues with their teeth. In the wild, an older tiger with a dental emergency probably wouldn’t survive, since he wouldn’t be able to catch and eat his prey. So Rama, an elderly 14-year-old Bengal tiger at a theme park … Read more
In the wild, a polar bear with a broken or infected tooth would probably die. But Arktos, a 4-year-old male polar bear at Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland, was lucky. One day, the zookeepers noticed that the normally playful bear was out-of-sorts and that his mouth seemed to be bothering him. A closer inspection revealed … Read more
A lion named Trouble lived up to his name when he cracked a tooth. The African lion, who lives in a wildlife park in Australia, was treated by a vet who normally treats much smaller cats. The veterinarian-turned-emergency-dentist removed half the cracked tooth, administering enough anaesthesia to ensure the lion did not wake up halfway … Read more
It was the case of the little toothbrush that could. Most toothbrushes have a simple, but worthwhile, purpose in life: to prevent tooth decay and gum disease by cleaning teeth. But one toothbrush had a loftier mission: to save the International Space Station. How did this happen? In August 2011, the International Space Station, a … Read more
An orangutan who looks remarkably like Chewbacca can now chew without pain thanks to a root canal. Every day, as part of their daily health check, the zookeepers at the Auckland Zoo ask the orange primates to open their mouths. One day, one of the keepers noticed that Charlie, a 31-year-old male orangutan, had a … Read more
Here’s a scary consequence of not treating tooth pain: wild animals that prey on humans are sometimes found, post mortem, to be suffering from toothache. Because the afflicted animals have damaged or infected teeth, they are unable to hunt for their usual prey and resort to eating humans. A case in point is a polar … Read more
What’s an emergency dentist to do if a lion has a toothache? Reach in to the lion’s mouth and operate, of course. When Lockie, an 11-year-old male lion at the Darling Downs Zoo in Australia, broke a lower canine tooth, two vets were summoned. Once they got a good look inside the lion’s mouth, they … Read more