World's first: Cyrano the bald eagle after his shattered beak was repaired with putty normally used for filling holes in human teethThis is one patient you wouldn't expect to find flicking through magazines in a dentist's waiting room.
Cyrano the bald eagle was found with a large chunk from the top half of his beak missing and is the first bird to have it fixed using a filling.
In the first operation of its kind, a dentist applied putty normally used to fill holes in human teeth to repair the eagle's beak.
The bird of prey had lost almost all of it after catching it in heavy duty fishing line somewhere off the Alaskan coast.
With the circulation cut off and the grinding effect of the line, a massive hole developed which had stopped him from hunting.
In a few week, vets believe further wear would have snapped the beak off completely, leading to certain death for Cyrano in the wild.
The eagle was rescued and taken to the Bird Treatment and Learning Centre (BTLC), in Anchorage, Alaska.
The team there had never seen an injury like it and contacted local dentist Kirk Johnson to ask his advice.
Feeling beaky: The eagle, which has a 8ft wing span, has the putty applied to his badly damaged beak
Finishing touches: The putty is smoothed down over the beak. Without the hour-long operation, Cyrano would almost certainly have lost his upper beak and died in the wildMr Johnson said the principles of the procedure were similar to his human patients.
He said: 'This was just a big tooth for a different individual - a very different individual.
'When they asked me if I had an interest in helping to repair a damaged bird's beak I thought why not.
'I had the idea of using a similar technique as used on humans, using the product they use when they make temporary crowns.
'It blends right in with the angle of his beak and covers up all the defectiveness we have in there.'
The operation took an hour to complete, and the putty was painted yellow so it fitted in with the rest of Cyrano's beak.
Mr Johnson said: 'I was looking around the office there and saw a yellow highlighter pen.
'The Alaska spirit is kind of like duct tape, if you have a problem, there's always a solution.
'While the putty sets in place at least this proud bird will have a yellow beak too until we find a more permanent solution.'
Shattered: The bald eagle had a massive chunk of his upper beak missing after being caught up in heavy duty fishing wire and was unable to hunt for foodCindy Palmatier, manager of the BTLC, said Cyrano was named after the famous French character 'Cyrano de Bergerac' - who was renowned for his big nose.
She said: 'We decided to call him Cyrano, it seemed appropriate somehow given his nose issues.
'The best theory we had was that he got some fishing line wrapped around that and over time it just slowly cut in.
'It's hard to imagine the damage getting any worse, so we had a tricky problem to solve.'
Cyrano will remain at the BTLC for the forseeable future, and may be used to educate people about eagles.
Mrs Palmatier said: 'We are unsure whether he will be able to return to the wild because of the nature of his injury, but he has been saved from death.
'Although he will be able to eat whole fish soon, at the moment Cyrano is being given chopped up food to make sure his new beak stays in place.'
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac was a French nobleman in the 1600s who was later made famous in a series of books dramatising his life.
source: dailymail
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