Even giant pandas have to see the dentist from time to time. The San Diego Zoo’s panda Bai Yun underwent a dental procedure Wednesday to fix a broken tooth. 
 
 Animal keepers noticed one of the 23-year-old panda’s lower teeth was chipped, so the zoo’s veterinary team anesthetized her, took X-rays and made repairs. 
 
 “The good news is the pulp canal hadn’t been compromised, but it’s very close to breaking into the pulp canal,” said Meg Sutherland-Smith, associate director of veterinary services at the zoo. “What we attempted to do was a restorative procedure to cover up the part of the tooth that was chipped to, hopefully, prevent any further chipping or deterioration.” 
 
 Giant pandas use their teeth to chew and break apart bamboo, so their teeth can get worn or damaged over time. Giant pandas such as Bai Yun, a mother of six, can spend up to 12 hours a day eating bamboo, which is the primary source of their nutrition. 
 
 Giant pandas in the U.S. are on a research loan from China. The San Diego Zoo is one of four in the United States that participate in the program. 
 
 For a hefty fee to China, the zoos get to study the critically endangered species up close and help with breeding. At the same time, the pandas make for highly popular attractions. 
 
 Only around 1,600 pandas are believed to be left in the wild in China, in part because of deforestation and the expansion of farming. The panda has lost much of its forest habitat in the mountainous areas of southwest China to roads and railroads, according to the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund. 
 
 — City News Service ||||| Bai Yun, the female giant panda at the San Diego Zoo, underwent a dental procedure Wednesday to fix a chipped tooth that could have impaired her ability to eat bamboo, her favorite food. 
 
 The 23-year-old panda was given anesthesia so that a veterinary team could repair the chipped tooth, a lower canine. A dental composite was then used to fill the damaged tooth. 
 
 Bai Yun's teeth were then cleaned and a few more X-rays were taken. 
 
 A bad tooth can be hard on any animal. But pandas are particularly vulnerable to damaged or worn down teeth. 
 
 The problem is that bamboo is chewy and not particularly nutritious. To get enough nutrition, giant pandas need to eat a lot of bamboo and they spend a lot of time chewing and breaking it apart. 
 
 Bai Yun has been known to spend up to 12 hours a day dining on bamboo.
– One of the most reproductively successful pandas in captivity is no longer stuck with a chipped tooth. On Wednesday, the San Diego Zoo's giant female panda Bai Yun underwent a procedure to fix a chipped lower canine tooth that could have seriously cut down her bamboo consumption, the Los Angeles Times reports. A veterinarian team gave the 23-year-old panda anesthesia, then used a dental composite to fill the damaged area before giving Bai Yun's chompers a cleaning. "The good news is the pulp canal hadn't been compromised, but it's very close to breaking into the pulp canal," the vet said, per the Times of San Diego. The procedure will "hopefully, prevent any further chipping or deterioration." That's good news for Bai Yun, who spends up to 12 hours a day munching on bamboo. The effort used to break down the chewy and not-so-nutritious food makes pandas especially prone to damaged teeth, the Times reports.