What do you do with an aging monkey whose incisors have worn away? Why, give it a root canal of course!
And that is exactly what 24-year-old Twiggy -- a lion-tailed macaque -- at the El Paso Zoo in Texas was scheduled to receive last week, according to a news story in the Las Cruces Sun News.
Animals in zoos can live much longer than in the wild and unexamined geriatric dental problems can become a problem, Dr. Victoria Milne, veterinarian for the El Paso Zoo, told the paper. Bridget Burris, D.D.S., a visiting dentist from Las Cruces, NM, was called in to perform the procedure.
"Milne said Twiggy will be given anesthesia, intubated, and put on a ventilator while Burris x-rays her and gets to work on the root canal, which is expected to take 45 minutes to an hour," the paper reported.
