A Pittsburgh zoo's 2-year-old polar bear is recovering Monday after root canal surgery. Last month, zookeepers at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium examined the bear after they noticed that he seemed lethargic. They discovered that Koda's quadrant mandibular canine - a big, fang-like tooth on the lower right side of his jaw - was infected.

Dr. Tom Klein, a veterinary dentist at Ohio State University who operated on Koda, said the infection in the tooth could have spread to the jaw if it wasn't dealt with.

Klein performed the procedure on Sunday with Dr. David Regine, a Pittsburgh dentist who normally works on humans.

First, they shot Koda with a tranquilizer dart. Then they removed the five-inch root and put a permanent filling in the three-inch tooth.

Regine said they had to be creative to operate on Koda because standard dental tools aren't big enough to be used in bear mouths.

"Some of the things I used were plumbing supplies," AP quotes Regine as saying. "I used a turkey skewer. You have to use your imagination."