Page 26 - Gateways_2023_Spring

Dental Care Continued

Ben has been trained to cooperate
in his own oral health care. On the
instruction “Open” and a hand signal from
an animal care specialist, he willingly
accepts the human toothbrush that gently
scrubs his teeth. Many of the animals at
Brookfield Zoo are trained to participate
in their own health care. Tooth brushing
is just one of many ways Brookfield Zoo
staff care for our animals’ oral health.
“Many people would be surprised
that dental health has a really significant
impact on an animal’s quality of life,”
said Dr. Sathya Chinnadurai, Chicago
Zoological Society’s senior vice president
of Animal Health & Welfare. “Anyone
who has had dental pain knows that
chewing with a broken or infected tooth
can be really uncomfortable and even cause
you to stop eating—the same is true for
animals. Chronic dental disease can set
animals up for secondary infections and
make other conditions, such as heart or
kidney disease, much worse. So we
pay very close attention to their teeth.”
Layla, a critically endangered, 2,300-
pound eastern black rhinoceros, nearly
died from a problem that began in her
mouth. An obstruction in her nasal
passage was limiting her ability to breathe.
Rhinos, obligate nasal breathers, can’t
breathe through the mouth for long
periods of time. In 2018, Layla became
the first adult of her species to undergo
a computerized tomography (CT) scan
of her skull, which revealed the source
of the infection—a molar that did not
erupt normally and the infected tissue
surrounding it. With assistance from
veterinary specialists and novel surgical
techniques and treatments, some developed
just for her, Layla is doing well today.

Right: At Brookfield Zoo’s Animal Hospital, board-certified
veterinary dentist, Dr. Stephen Juriga of Veterinary Dental
Center in Aurora, performs a root canal procedure to treat
a fractured tooth.

26 GATEWAYS | DENTAL HEALTH