Sir, on a recent visit to Kerala, a southern state of India, we found dental solutions being effectively put to use in an elephant to replace a missing tusk. The elephant had lost its natural tusk and it was replaced with a fibre substitute which was cantilevered to the existing natural tusk with metal screws (Fig. 1). The artificial tusk was painted to achieve a proper shade matching for better aesthetics. This innovative solution resembles prosthetic options for replacing natural teeth and reminds us of human ingenuity to use dental techniques that can also benefit animals.

Fig. 1
figure 1

A prosthetic tusk created for an elephant in Southern India

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