Dentists find cure for jumbo-size toothache

Dentists in southern India have performed root canal surgery on a giant scale to rid a 27-year-old elephant of chronic tusk ache.

A three-member team of dentists, helped by a veterinary surgeon, carried out the two-and-a-half-hour operation on the male pachyderm which developed a cavity in one of its tusks, officials said.

The operation took place in early November after the owner of the pet elephant brought the animal for an examination of the infection that had damaged the tusk.

"We decided to use the traditional root canal process as a remedy," dentist Sunil Kumar said in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

He said the elephant was the perfect patient as dentists drilled and pumped resin into the huge cavity in the chipped tusk. "We needed extra-large instruments and equipment and a large quantity of resin to fill the crack," said Kumar.

"For humans, we use only four grams of resin to fill a cavity but we had to use 188 grams to fill the crack in the elephant's tusk."

Kumar said the tusk was 50cms long while the cavity was 6cms deep.

"During the surgery, the tusker was not tranquilised but he was very cooperative and obeyed his handler," he added.

Elephants play a major ceremonial role in Kerala where they are used in religious parades, marriages and social festivities.