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October 28, 2009 | dentalproductsreport.com
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Vampire craze bites dental

You won't believe what some patients are asking for this Halloween.

by Lauren Bryant, Associate Web Editor

Vampires are back.

With the past year supporting one of the largest pop culture vampire crazes since Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire,” it’s no surprise that requests for prosthetic and/or fixed fangs have been on the rise.

The Twilight series has received some of the largest fan following of young adult literature since Harry Potter. With the second film of the series, “New Moon,” set to release in November, the Twilight series that follows the love affair between Edward, a young vampire with a heart of gold, and his all-too-human girlfriend, Bella, has reintroduced vampires into the mainstream. Additional help from HBO’s hit series, “Trueblood,” which recently finished its second season, has also launched vampires into superstardom.

But what does vampire culture and mainstream media have to do with dentistry? Around this time of year, more than you think.

Getting starting

Steve Johnston, Lead Designer and Art Director for Vampire Dentures and Halloween Park Productions, has worked as Art Director, F/X Master, F/X Artist and as Producer and Director for stage, haunted attractions, television and film. He started to work on Halloween and costumes at a young age, and has manufactured prosthetic vampire, werewolf and zombie teeth for the stage, screen and general public since 1988.

As an Art Director for Independent Studios, a film company based in New Orleans, Johnston was able to gain some wonderful hands-on experience in theatric arts.

“With Anne Rice being in New Orleans, we did 'Interview with a Vampire' on stage before the movie came out. I was doing dentures for her Official Fan Club Board of Directors and hundreds of people coming through the city,” he said.

Although the busiest time of year is the two to three months leading up to Halloween, Johnston said he receives requests for prosthetic teeth/fangs throughout the year and from all over the country.

Gothan, owner of thevampiresdentist.co.za and self-proclaimed fangsmith, experiences similar requests on the other side of the globe in South Africa.

He was introduced to vampires after seeing “Scars of Dracula” with his father as a young boy, and from there his interest in vampires grew to where he wanted his own set of fangs.

“This was long before the Internet, and all I had for guidance was my imagination. It’s a miracle I still have any teeth left after my ‘experimental’ phase,” he said. “Finding dental supply houses in South Africa was a tough challenge, and it took a couple of years before I actually located one. And from there on it progressed to making ‘fang caps.’”

The fang-making process

To start his fang-making process, Johnston sculpts all the dentures in clay first. His clients are required to send in dental impressions, preferably in a hard stone material, like Golden Pemstone.

“I get every kind of stone positive you can imagine. Then, from there, that is where the process itself is art meets science. Whatever the client wants is sculpted in clay on the base directly,” Johnston said.

Once the clay model matches the teeth so the fangs look as natural as possible, Johnston casts again into a negative mold. From there, the fangs are cast in dental acrylics to create the most natural color. The fangs are then resculpted with a dremmel until they fit perfectly within the impression’s gumline. A dental acrylic gloss is applied so the teeth look wet and shiny like real teeth. Johnston creates a bridge to fit behind the front teeth, a process he began about 15 years ago, preferring a bridge to individual caps.

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