Dentist Repairs Injured Turtle's Shell Using Denture Glue

A turtle currently undergoing rehab in a center in Florida found help for its fractured shell in an unlikely source: denture glue.

The 40-pound sea turtle, named Elena, developed a 10-inch crack in its shell likely due to a boat strike, rendering the animal vulnerable to infection.

Bette Zirkelbach, the manager of the Marathon, Fla.'s Turtle Hospital, said she was stumped when Elena was first brought to her, ABC News reports.

"Historically, we have tried different marine epoxies and we haven't had a lot of luck," Zirkelbach said.

For a month, the hospital cared for Elena, administering a broad-spectrum antibiotic and vitamins in addition to daily tube-feeding, The Associated Press reported. Once the turtle began eating on her own, however, the attention shifted toward the shell.

The hospital tried several options but struggled to find anything that would adhere to the surface.

"It's a living thing; the outer layer [of the shell] is made of keratin," Zirkelbach told ABC. "[It's] the same thing our fingernails are made out of and it's hard to adhere to.

Stumped, Zirkelbach called her dentist.

Fred Troxel had never tried to repair a sea turtle shell before, but figured there had to be some overlap to the bonding performed in dentistry.

"In modern dentistry, you make something non-organic like a crown stick to something organic," he said. "There are all kinds of different [bonding agents.]"

Troxel settled on a waterproof denture resin to repair the fracture and prosthetic pieces to fill in the holes in the shell.

"I'm certainly going to keep checking on it. If this bond fails, then I'll go to plan B," Troxel said. "We're certainly in uncharted territory here."

According to Zirkelbach, Elena will likely need roughly a year of rehabilitation before its returned to the wild.