Lake Superior Zoo ‘Crowns’ Brown Bear with Historic Full Metal Tooth Replacement

DULUTH, Minn.– For the average person, going to the dentist for a routine root canal can feel like a big ordeal.

But at the Lake Superior Zoo, a team got to perform a very special first ever procedure in the world for a very special bear.

“You know, honestly, we love being able to pave the way and show new ways of being able to care for the animals. And so if we’re able to kind of, you know, show people that we can actually take care of these guys and show them that we can put a crown on a thousand-pound brown bear, that is absolutely what we’re going to do, for sure,” explained Lizzy Larson, Director of Animal Management, Lake Superior Zoo.

But before this happened, two years ago, Tundra, a six-year-old Alaskan Coastal brown bear cracked a tooth which resulted in a crown.

“Now, unfortunately, over the last two years, he’s kind of worn on that crown, and the Crown actually came off. And so, we did a knockdown on him a couple weeks ago where we took an impression of his tooth and had a new crown made. And now Tundra has a fully titanium tooth, fully titanium crown, and he has no infection in his tooth, and he should go on to live a very, very long, happy life with this tooth,” said Larson.

Dr. Grace Brown, a board-certified veterinary dentist, came up with the plan for this new tooth.

It took ‘Creature Crowns’ five months to plan, mold, and create the largest crown in the world.

Dr. Brown said the procedure was necessary, brown bears in captivity can live 20 years longer than a wild bear.

“This is the largest crowd ever seen. It’s 32 millimeters in height and 25 millimeters in width. It’s the largest crown manufactured from wax and casts. It required a lot of time on Scott’s point from ‘Creature Crowns’ to figure out which type of metal would we be able to use.” explained Dr. Brown, “We have an ethical responsibility as veterinarians to provide quality care with patients that are under our care right under human care.”

The procedure itself only took twenty minutes.

Zoo staff shared in a media release;

“Tundra’s treatment was made possible through a partnership between Minnesota Veterinary Dental Specialists and Creature Crowns, who provided all services at no cost to the Zoo.”

Dr. Brown told FOX 21 that his upper right canine, is part of the 8 essential teeth for bear survival.

Tundra will quickly make a recovery in just a few hours, ready to show off his new smile.