Elephant undergoes dental surgery in Kerala

TRIPRAYAR - An elephant in Kerala’s Tripayar town underwent cosmetic dental surgery.

The elephant was suffering from a crack in its tusk for the past five years, which was causing an accumulation of water and dirt.

A dental surgery using nano-fillers was performed on the pachyderm by a team of expert dentists and veterinary doctors.

“We inspected the animal and found that it was a 50 centimetres (cm) crack which was about four centimetres deep. After reviewing the literature, we found that human dentin and the tusk has similar histological characters, so we decided to do a light cure resin bonding for this animal,” said C.V. Pradeep, dental surgeon.

Dentists informed media persons about the challenges of the surgery.

“We had many challenges in front of us when we were encountering this animal. The first was that we decided to do this procedure without tranquilising the animal and the whole procedure took about two-and-a-half hours to be completed,” said Pradeep.

“The next challenge was that the instruments used in humans were not applicable to this animal so we had to customise all our instruments to suit the animal’s demand. Finally, we have completed the procedure and we are happy that the procedure has been completed well,” he added.

The elephant is recovering well and has already started using its tusks for daily activities. By Juhan Samuel (ANI)