Hold still please: Orion's teeth are carefully inspected at the Santa Fe zoo in Colombia A hippopotamus's mouth can measure up to 4ft wide, their teeth can grow up to 3 ft long, and they eat up to 150lb of food each day.
So visits from the dentist are key - as Orion the hippo knows all too well.
Orion - who was born in the Hacienda Napoles ranch which belonged to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar - now lives at the Santa Fe zoo in Medellin where he was visited by a dentist.
Big mouth: Orion has to lift one back foot to balance himself as he spreads his 4ft jaws
The dentist gingerly puts his arm in between the hippo's dangerous set of canines. Orion was born on the Napoles ranch which belonged to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (right)Orion's curved lower canine teeth, like elephants' tusks, are made of of ivory.
But it is his molars which are most important. Hippopotamuses are herbivores which grind up vegetation with the flat molars. When a hippo's molars have worn down too much for them to eat, they die.
Escobar ran his drug empire from the eight-square-mile ranch in the South American country where Orion was born. At one point he supplied 80 per cent of the world's cocaine.
Despite his brutal reputation the drug baron spent much of his fortune converting his home into his very own fantasy land.
It was littered with giant concrete dinosaurs, a bullfighting ring, luxury cars, and a plane he used to smuggle drugs to the U.S.
It also featured a zoo featuring giraffes, elephants, kangaroos and - of course - hippos, including Orion's mother.
Escobar's interest in wild animals led to the biggest hippo population outside of Africa near his estate. He was cornered by Colombian police on December 2 in 1993 and gunned down.
Now, Hacienda Napoles has been turned into a theme park.
For just £5 tourists can tour the place in the jungle where Orion - now more occupied with the mundane matters of dentistry - was born.
Legacy: A hippo still at Hacienda Napoles accepts a treat from a visitor to the park. Escobar's interest in wild animals has led to the biggest hippo population outside of Africa near his estate
Hippopotamuses are herbivores which grind up vegetation with the flat molars. When a hippo's molars have worn down too much for them to eat, they die
Zoo worker Jorge Aguirre jumps a fence during the dental procedure source: dailymail
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