IF going to the dentist makes you feel uneasy, spare a thought for Nissim the elephant - he needed a Black and Decker masonry drill to help sort out his very special filling.
African bull Nissim required emergency treatment to fix a broken tusk after trying to boss his future wives. One of them decided to let him know his attentions were unwelcome.
Nissim, who is 12, required the equivalent of a human root canal filling after losing part of his tusk when he was pushed away.
Bosses at
Knowsley Safari Park
, near Liverpool, called on top London dentist Peter Kertesz to sort out the injury, which can be fatal if left untreated. Although he spends the majority of his time working with humans, Peter gladly swapped his trendy West End clinic to fix Nissim's tusk at the park.
Peter, who has also been treating animals for more than 20 years, enlisted the help of a team of vets and safari park staff to carry out the mammoth two and a half hour procedure.
Nissim was placed under anaesthetic while Peter used the Black and Decker drill to locate the source of the infection.
Fortunately only a few inches of infection were discovered at the centre of the broken tusk, which Peter removed before trimming the tusk and plugging the hole with a nylon bolt.
He said: "The whole procedure went very well."
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