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Special Effects: Teeth and Fangs

 I wanted to go over a few common "special effects" for costumes to add that bit of flair and added pernach. There are lots of characters and creatures to dress up as that have some oddness about their teeth. Fang-like canine teeth, rows of shark teeth, buck teeth, gold or diamond teeth or event rotten teeth can be easily achievable. But first...let's have a care.

Precautions

So, most of these solutions for teeth involve putting plastic in your mouth. So don't ingest anything...won't be fun. Also for the love of all things holy make sure what you put in your mouth was sanitized first. If things start to feel uncomfortable at any time, remove safely from your mouth and store away for later. Don't leave teeth in while eating. You may be okay for drinks and small snacks. 
Please don't use glue in your mouth. Denture adhesive was made for things like this. 

Many of these solutions for fangs and such, I do think professionally made kits are actually quite good. I will still link to a few DIY tutorials but please be careful especially if you have had any dental work like fillings, temporary crowns or just crowns in general. 

Now that I'm done spooking you, let's look at canine fang solutions for your sassy vampires, cat girls/boys, or other vicious creatures. 

Easy Fangs

Has anyone gotten those party favor fangs before? The ones that look like spring traps and make you talk funny? Well, this is certainly an option for adding fangs. Obviously not the most realistic or convincing but I add this here because it is absolutely a solution. It's child-safe...ish. 

The other options are a denture style set of teeth or a crown style. 

Denture Style Teeth

The "denture" style means it covers multiple teeth instead of just targeting one tooth. You will see lots of effects with this style from multiple rows of teeth like a shark, vampire fangs, or fake braces. 

Sometimes these come with plastic molding material similar to what is used to form night guards for teeth grinding. These fit over your teeth and tend to hold without extra adhesion. Others may just us a generic shape like the party favor fangs to hold things in your mouth. 

If you are going to DIY this style of teeth, you can use friendly plastic pellets to make a mold form of your teeth or use a night guard for teeth-grinding. These will be fairly snug yet easily removable for talking, eating and functioning. But fair warning as both of these solutions require putting something hot in your mouth so beware of burns.

You could make a mold then cast to do the friendly plastic method so you don't have to put hot plastic in your mouth and burn yourself. See the Monster Maker Demo.

Crown Style

For this method, you focus on an individual tooth instead of the whole row. This method is less intrusive and can have a more natural looking effect. Similar to the denture method, most kits for an individual or set of teeth will mold over a single tooth or around the tooth then settle in. 

Scarecrow brand is what I've used in the past and I've had great results personally. But this method is also great for rodent/rabbit buck teeth, a snaggle tooth or a set of fangs. 

DIY versions you can make fangs or buck teeth out of drug store acrylic nails. You can use friendly plastic or denture adhesive to affix the tooth to your natural teeth. To remove them, you can usually unstick them by rinsing your mouth with warm water, mouth wash or a saline solution. Make sure you brush your teeth and gums with toothpaste afterwards. 

Tooth Paint

So, you can create effects using only tooth paint or wax. It does come in several colors for effects. With black you can block out teeth, add gaps or turn your teeth into needles. 

I'm sure there are ways to paint your teeth other colors. But that's a search you can do yourself. 

All right. That's what I have on teeth. This should help you decide what's best for your costume.

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