Arktos The Polar Bear All Smiles After Trip To The Dentist
Arktos, a 75-stone polar bear, is all smiles after receiving urgent dental treatment.
Arktos the polar bear, who is resident at Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie in Scotland, needed emergency dental treatment on a rotten tooth. A team of ten dentists worked on the giant bear after putting him to sleep for the procedure; Arktos needed root canal treatment on a tooth that had become infected.
The team placed Arktos on a specially made table, which was reinforced with scaffolding plans and poles before the dentists set to work removing the decayed tissue from the bear’s tooth and giving his mouth a thorough clean. The rotten tooth was drilled, cleaned and sealed and Arktos was then left to come around from the anaesthetic.
Animal collection manager at the Highland Wildlife Park, Douglas Richardson, said that he was relieved that the dental team had managed to save Arktos’ tooth; in the wild, an infection would have spread to other parts of his body, causing him considerable pain and discomfort and it could actually proved fatal.
Mr Richardson said that the operation was relatively simple and very similar to a human root canal; although with an animal of his size, there would always be risks. He added that early indications suggested that the procedure was a success.
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