Coaxed with squid and herring treats, a harbor seal at the New England Aquarium was trained to hold a digital sensor plate in its mouth so a veterinary dentist could take x-rays of its decayed canine tooth.
The process was aided by the use of a handheld x-ray device, the Nomad from Aribex.
All the seals at the Boston aquarium have been trained to open their mouths and allow their handlers to examine and brush their teeth, explained aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse. Still, it took trainer Patty Schilling about two months to get 16-year-old Reggae to hold the digital film block in his mouth for an extended period of time.
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| Image courtesy of the New England Aquarium. |
"It just amazes me how wonderfully trained these animals are," said Laura LeVan, D.V.M., a veterinary dentist in Concord, MA, who examines all the aquarium's harbor and fur seals every year. "We have to anesthetize dogs and cats to get x-rays, but we didn't have to do that with Reggae. He was trained to just gently hold it in his mouth and then gently release it."
When Schilling noticed that Reggae had a discolored mandibular right canine, Dr. LeVan took several digital x-rays with the Nomad.
The x-rays showed that Reggae's tooth is nonvital, but Dr. LeVan and aquarium vets are monitoring the situation because anesthesia to do extractions or root canals would be risky, she told DrBicuspid.com.
"He does not seem to be uncomfortable," Dr. LeVan noted.
She has treated a variety of animals at local zoos, including monkeys and jaguars. "The truth is there's dental disease in many of these animals," Dr. LeVan observed. "For many animals, modern anesthesia is very safe."
Aribex makes several models of the x-ray devices, which can be used on humans and animals and for forensic applications. The units are the same, explained spokesman Steve Dawson, but FDA regulations require the company to put different labels on the devices to designate them for either human or veterinary uses.
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