Tauranga's first public display of a tooth extraction has taken place on The Strand in the CBD.

Only this tooth weighs more than 200kg and it's made entirely of fibreglass.

He's the tooth, who as of 2.30pm today sat on top of Strand Dental, and now he's on the move to his new home at 16^th Avenue.

He might be nameless, but for many Tauranga residents and visitors of the city he's an icon of the waterfront.

Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Strand Dental owner Miles Bowker says he's been on the building more than 20 years and during that time he's taken on many looks.

'The ex-owner of the business would swap the toothbrush for a poppy on ANZAC day and a saxophone during the Jazz Festival. So that was a bit of a quirky edge.

'There was also a time about six or seven years ago when we had a south-westerly blow through and he toppled over, so he's been through a lot.”

Miles says with a new home however, comes a new look and makeover is on the cards.

'My daughter actually painted him a few years ago, but she wasn't able to reach the top of him. Now that he's on the ground we're going to clean him up. He's going to be glistening white with red lips.

'I'm hoping we can put him on the roof of our new building, if we can engineer that. He's not particularly heavy he's only about 200kg.”

His extraction from 45 The Strand today was a team effort by Asset Engineering and McLeod Cranes crew alongside iLine construction who are completing ongoing work on the neighbouring building.

Asset Engineering director Peter Hamilton says it's one of the more unusual jobs he's ever had.

'We've had a few odd jobs before but this was definitely one of the strangest.”