London dentist travels thousands of miles to treat a walrus with troublesome teeth

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A dentist from London has swapped his Mayfair practice for an aquarium in Russia to provide treatment for a walrus with troublesome teeth.

Dr Peter Kertesz flew more than 2,500 miles to treat Nyusha the walrus after the 10-year old mammal developed a painful oral abscess. The trip took months to plan, but the actual procedure was completed in just a couple of hours with the help of dental nurse, Monika Mazurkiewicz. The abscess was very large, according to the expert dentist, and the procedure was risky, so the entire team was relieved to see that treatment had been successful and that Nyusha started to recover soon afterwards.

Dr Kertesz has operated on all kinds of animals over the course of the last 30 years, and he has travelled around the globe tending to elephants, gorillas, monkeys, dolphins and sea lions with dental dilemmas in Egypt, Iraq, Europe, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Dr Kertesz never intended to become an expert in animal dentistry, and his unique tale began when he was asked to look at a cat by a vet named Bruce Fogle nine years after he graduated from dental school. 

After treating the cat, Dr Kertesz vowed that was the first and last time he would stray from human teeth, but he had a change of heart. Having decided that this was an area he was keen to explore, he decided to put his heart and soul into it so that he would be better-equipped to tackle challenging cases than any other dentist in the world. He now has a global reputation and is incredibly passionate about the work he undertakes. Unlike humans, animals undergo dental work purely for health reasons, so every procedure makes a difference.

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