Do polar bears need dentists? Until now, it’s not a question that ever occurred to Air Mail Pilot, and it may not have occurred to you. But it came up when Sisu, a three-year-old male polar bear who resides at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, in England, recently cracked a tooth.

In the frozen wild, dentists tend to be scarce, so polar bears with cracked teeth—or cavities or gingivitis—make do as best they can. But access to dentistry turns out to be a silver lining of captivity.