An eight-year old female bottlenose dolphin called Dumisa, which had been suffering from general dental abrasion has undergone hours of root canal treatment. The unusual and complex procedure was carried out by a South African veterinary dentist in Hong Kong and with the free will of the dolphin, following months of preparation using props to acclimatise Dumisa to the procedure. State-of-the art endodontic therapeutics were used to treat one damaged tooth while up to 18 others are in different stages of treatment, by recreating the bone and facilitating root canal treatment. And all without anaesthesia nor restraint of any sort.
Cedric Tutt, the only European veterinary specialist in dentistry in South Africa, has been journeying the globe to prevent and treat dental diseases of wildlife animals from pandas to sea lions over a decade. He explained: “Dumisa was suffering from general dental abrasion. While in the past we would have had no other choice than to extract them all, we can now maintain Dumisa’s teeth by performing root canal treatment using a specialised endodontic cement that helps recreate the bone surrounding the root.”
Hong Kong’s Ocean Park was the stage of the world’s premiere, which necessitated a whole day of patience from a team of dedicated veterinarians and animal trainers. Some of Dumisa’s teeth were worn, exposing the central living part of the tooth, the pulp, which had subsequently died. Radiographs had also shown signs of inflammation, a great source of discomfort for her. “The training and veterinary teams of Ocean Park in Hong Kong worked with Dumisa for months to get her used to the dental instruments, encourage her to keep her mouth open and enhance her willingness to have her teeth “x-rayed”. They used harmless props such as a model of a portable x-ray machine and electric toothbrushes, to help her appreciate that the operation was safe. This operation could never have happened without her cooperation,” emphasises Tutt. Dumisa was left to swim freely in the pool and the treatment was successfully completed in stages as Dumisa allowed.
Dentsply Maillefer, a Swiss-based company specialised in endodontics and state-of-the art dental instruments, supported the operation. “It is very exciting to be part of this amazing project. With over a hundredyears of history, our company’s main focus was until now on humans. It is therefore very inspiring to see that our instruments can benefit animals as well. In this particular case, we didn’t have to develop special instruments since a dolphin’s teeth are homodont, that is similar in shape and close to humans’,” explains Dominique Legros, CEO of Dentsply Maillefer.