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Does the thought of going to the dentist make you squirm? But how do you make a dentist squirm... how about having a 95 kilo Tiger as a patient?!

Recently Adelaide Zoo had a dental day for some very special and large patients and one of those was our beautiful male Sumatran Tiger, Tuan. About once a year, Adelaide Zoo brings in Dr David, a specialist animal dentist, to do dental work on our animals. This dental day he had booked in an Orangutan, Sumatran Tiger and Sun Bear…quite a line up.

After a successful appointment with Karta the Orangutan, Tuan was up. Under a general anaesthetic we brought Tuan up to the Animal Health Centre. Unlike me, Tuan is a regular to the dentist, having work done last dental day with Dr David. The main reason Tuan was brought up for this dental day was because keepers notice his bottom right canine was becoming discoloured. His feeding behaviour had not changed but still the discolouration needed to be investigated.

X-rays were taken of both Tuan's upper and lower jaw, with Dr David specifically looking at Tuan's canine teeth. The cause behind the discolouring of Tuan's canine was a filling that had fractured since the last dental day. That was good news because the tooth didn’t need major work, just a root canal and new filling. In addition he had two other fillings topped up and a fractured pre-molar tooth removed.

After a long two hours in the dentist chair, Tuan was brought back to the Tiger lockaways to recover. After a good night sleep Tuan was straight back to what he loves doing most - eating.

Arliah
Carnivore Keeper, Adelaide Zoo