travelling-blogger

comments

A chipped tooth is never pleasant, but when you spend 12 hours a day chewing bamboo it can begin to grind you down.

So Giant Panda Bai Yun must have been very relieved to visit the dentist at San Diego Zoo - and she even got to sleep through the whole procedure.

The 23-year-old panda was given an anaesthetic by the zoo's veterinary team so that they could fill her lower canine with a dental composite.

Dentists repair chipped tooth of bamboo eating panda

Painless procedure: Giant Panda Bai Yun was given an anaesthetic so she slept through the treatment

After the procedure, the tooth was cured with a light to seal the filling, then the teeth were cleaned and more x-rays taken while the panda dozed.

'The good news is the pulp canal hadn't been compromised, but it's very close to breaking into the pulp canal,' said Meg Sutherland-Smith, associate director of veterinary services at the San Diego Zoo.

'What we attempted to do was a restorative procedure to cover up the part of the tooth that was chipped to, hopefully, prevent any further chipping or deterioration.' 

The vets at the zoo carried out a restorative procedure to cover up the part of the tooth that was chipped

The Californian zoo, which was recently named one of the US's top ten zoos by USA Today, explained that, since Giant Pandas use their teeth to chew and break apart bamboo, they can get worn or damaged over time.

Bamboo is a Giant Panda's primary source of food but, as it isn't particularly nutritious, the animals need to eat a lot of it to get the energy they need.

Giant Pandas use their teeth to chew and break apart bamboo, so they can get worn or damaged over time

San Diego Zoo currently has three resident Giant Pandas, which are on loan from China as part of a program to study the endangered species and help with breeding.

Bai Yun - which means 'White Cloud' - has already given birth to six cubs, five of which were conceived naturally.

The panda and her partner Gao Gao - father to four of her cubs - have become known as the zoo's 'super couple', thanks to their breeding record. 

Bai Yun first became a mother in 1999 after being artificially inseminated with sperm from Shi Shi, the male panda at the zoo at that time.

She gave birth to her first cub Hua Mei, which translates as 'China USA', which was the first giant panda born in the United States to survive to adulthood.

Paws for thought: San Diego Zoo currently has three resident Giant Pandas, which are on loan from China as part of a program to study the endangered species and help with breeding

In 2003, Mei Sheng - which translates as 'Born in the USA' - came along, followed by Su Lin (A Little Bit of Something very Cute) in 2005, Zhen Zhen (Precious) in 2007 and Yun Zi (Son of Cloud) in 2009.

Her youngest cub named Xiao Liwu (Little Gift) was born in 2012, making Bai Yun the second oldest panda on record to give birth. The oldest was two days older than Bai Yun at the time of birth of their respective cubs.