random werewolf thought of the day

[ratcreature]

So werewoves in fiction generally are good at regeneration, also they tend to grow canines when they shift. Do you think when an adult human gets bitten and transforms into a werewolf form for the first time they regrow any missing/crowned teeth?

I mean that has to be a common issue, because most adult humans have at least have a crown or two by their thirties, often earlier, yet I can't remember ever seeing a scene in werewolf fiction where the newly made werewolf has to spit out their now obsolete dental implants...

Comments

[tassosss]

Maybe if they loose the teeth they would regrow new. People usually have the changed human keep their scars, don't they? That's a very good question.

This post made me smile so much when I saw it.

[ratcreature]

Glad I could amuse. Teeth have been on my mind quite a bit recently...

What would really suck for the poor werewolf would be if their teeth and jaws got rearranged in their transformation, wrecking all the carefully fitted dental work, but they didn't regrow (human) teeth and reverted to dental ruins in their human form. I mean essentially the only option would be removable dentures or something, and how do you explain to your dentist all the dental work got wrecked?

[brownbetty]

Imagine if your wisdom teeth regrew every time! Terrible!

[krait]

This comment reminded me of the fact that a horse's wisdom teeth are called "wolf teeth" for some reason. o.O

[saraht]

I was literally about to post an almost identical comment, except it was "awful!" rather than "terrible!"

[ratcreature]

My own wisdom teeth all fit fine and grew in as they should, so I didn't even think of that added complication, that many people have to get them pulled.

[ratcreature]

The worst case scenario would be though if the transformation wrecked all your human dental work but when you are back to human you don't keep any of your werewolf teeth, just the ruins of your human teeth. No way you could keep crowns.

[brownbetty]

Well, they'd almost have to, unless a werewolf has a human-shaped jaw and teeth.

Or unless the transformation is really 'magical' and less 'physiological.' Like, human -> cloud of mist -> werewolf!

[ratcreature]

They might heal their human parts in the process though. Like the first time they transform they have to spit out their crowns that got pushed out by their newly improved werewolf fangs, but going back they regrow their human bits in a healed, ideal state, like all ailments, including rotten teeth are fixed.

And if that is not the case you certainly don't want to become a werewolf after you had a hip orkne replacement...

[brownbetty]

But, you know, if it's the kind of magical transformation where you go from a human with all your clothes on to a naked werewolf and then back to a human with all the clothes on, then I can see one's hip replacement surviving the transition.

[ratcreature]

Yeah okay if the clothes are kept on standby in some pocket dimension there artificial joint ought to stay there too...

[lilacsigil]

A lot of fictional werewolves seem to heal up whichever way they're changing, so I guess they'd have cavity-free (though certainly not straight) teeth in either form, as teeth are alive. But poor Remus Lupin didn't heal up transforming back to human...

[ratcreature]

But a lot of people have teeth that are more patched up tooth remnants after a root canal than a living tooth, like one of mine only holds up because it has a metal pin inside under the crown. I guess by magic rules that might still be restored, though I guess any dental implants would be a loss. Imagine you paid a ton of money to have nice implants for teeth you are missing and then that is all wrecked because your jaws shifted.

People with hip replacements and such probably should worry too, if lycanthrophy doesn't fix your human problem afterwards. But most fictional werewolves are younger so that's bound to come up less. But I had my first crown in my early twenties and my teeth aren't that terrible, so I figure statistically even among the young and fit fictional werewolf crowd that has to come up sometimes.

[lilacsigil]

I got my first filling at 24 and still haven't got any crowns!

Hereditary werewolves are probably okay, because they start changing either as kids or teens. I feel sorry for Lupin, though, if he can't get fillings, only teeth removed or temporarily sealed.

[ratcreature]

I envy your teeth.

I think if no human dental fixes stuck, and lycantrophy didn't fix the human ones either, the only practical solution for the werewolf would be to get all damaged human teeth pulled and get removable dentures or partial dentures that they can take out. With Lupin in a magical society he could at least explain to their equivalent to a dentist (or go to Hermione's parents, heh) but how would anyone in one of the universes where they hide largely unnoticed explain that kind of request for dentures to their dentist? "Sorry the fillings won't stick because my jaws change once a month?"