An Alaska brown bear at the Lake Superior Zoo in northeastern Minnesota has a gleaming new silver-colored tooth in a first-of-its-kind procedure for a bear. The 800-pound bear named Tundra was put under sedation last week and fitted with a new crown — the largest dental crown ever created. The hour-long procedure was done by Dr. Grace Brown, a board-certified veterinary dentist who helped perform a root canal on the same tooth two years ago. When Tundra re-injured the tooth, the decision was made to give him a new, stronger crown. The titanium alloy crown was created for Tundra from a wax caste of the tooth. Tundra and his sibling, Banks, have been at the Duluth zoo since they were 3 months old, after their mother was killed.
