Tutorial: How to Make a Snaggle Tooth for Costumes

Adding fangs to the bottom jaw is a little more difficult than adding them to the top. This is because most people have a slight overbite, so a bottom tooth that stands straight up will poke into your top gums whenever you close your mouth. To make bottom fangs work, you have to form them on an angle and make sure to bite down while you are forming the tooth. Don’t forget, if you want a snaggle tooth to be visible with your mouth closed, you’ll have to make it fairly long (or at least, longer than you think it will need to be).

Supplies needed:

• Non-toxic thermoplastic (such as Polly Plastics or Instamorph)
• Denture adhesive
• A heatgun (or hot water)
• Optional: silicone beaker (to use when melting the plastic beads)

Before you start: safety with thermoplastic beads

Always make sure to test the thermoplastic material outside of your mouth and familiarize yourself with it before molding your fangs. You want to make sure you understand how it works so that you don’t accidentally hurt yourself or get anything stuck in your mouth. That being said, it’s a pretty easy and safe material to use, so it’s unlikely you will run into any problems.

When choosing a brand of thermoplastic, make sure it’s a non-toxic brand that’s safe to use for products that you would eat and drink with.

You will also notice the melting instructions on most types of thermoplastic beads recommend using hot water. I found that I had a lot more luck using a heatgun to melt the plastic beads together. However, this does produce a lot more heat, so be careful when you first touch the plastic after heating it up. You also might want to wait a moment until the clear putty cools just slightly before molding it in your mouth so that you don’t burn your gums.

Will the tusks get stuck on your teeth?

I have never had a problem with getting the thermoplastic stuck on any of my teeth. It cools and hardens slowly, so it forms a hard-ish gel texture before cooling into a completely hard plastic. This gives you plenty of time to remove the tooth from your mouth before anything gets stuck.

However, if the thermoplastic fang does get stuck to your tooth while you are molding your fangs, swish a hot liquid in your mouth to soften the plastic. It doesn’t need to be scalding hot liquid (you don’t want to burn your mouth), but it should be the temperature of a warm cup of coffee or tea (about 150ºF or 65ºC).

How to make a snaggle tooth (or small tusk)

1. Heat up the thermoplastic. Just as in the previous tutorial, heat up the thermoplastic using a heatgun or hot water.
2. Shape it around your bottom tooth, forming it outward at an angle. You’ll want to use a little extra thermoplastic toward the base of the tooth so it can go around your upper jaw without tearing a hole in the fang.
3. Close your jaw and shape the tooth in front of your upper jaw. This will form a small indent in the fang that lets you close your mouth on top of it. You won’t have to constantly push your lower jaw forward when wearing the lower fangs.
4. Continue to heat up the thermoplastic and shape the tooth as necessary. Remember, if you want the tooth to be visible with your mouth closed, you’ll have to make it a little longer than you think.
5. You may still need to use denture adhesive to attach the teeth. Bottom fangs don’t always need adhesive to stay in place, since gravity works in our favor here. But it may still be necessary depending on how tightly the fang fits.