THE PACK Message Boards

Dreamer wrote:Perhaps I used the wrong phrase. It's not so much a persecution complex as it being a firm beleif that humanity will kill anything different than the norm, expressed in your writings. And although history backs it up, you do seem to go a little... overboard.

If you're referring to my teeth, I lived those (and many similar experiences) with people. Normal people do not like other people who have fangs instead of "regular teeth". Been there, lived that...
Which is moot, now. One of the problems with Canidensis is also weak enamel and dry mouth, which get together and cause tooth decay no matter what you do (and I tried everything, believe me).
Result: Now, I'm edentulous (toothless) and my dentures have normal human square teeth. Yuchh. It's actually harder to eat now than in the past.
If Wulfen Blood sells well enough, I will have a proper set of teeth made that match my own real teeth. If not, I have the Insurance teeth, which are better than nothing...
And this thread is getting derailed. Let's make this the last post on the subject of ME, and return to where a werewolf's teeth come from and where they go.
No...not in the little plastic bucket with the cleaning tablet; Please!

RedEye wrote:No...not in the little plastic bucket with the cleaning tablet; Please!

Yeah, a Wolf's dentures would need a bigger plastic bucket...

Here's an idea I thought up while creating my personal breed of werewolf:

The majority of the bones of the skull of the werewolf are replaced by cartilage during the time between the infection and the first change. The areas around the eyebrows, nasal bridge, and the sides of the upper and lower jaw remain bone and actually thicken to make up the difference in durability, giving a werewolf a very malleable-but still very strong-face. An x-ray would show this difference as ribs of dense bone stretching in a web round the skull. During the change, these 'face-ribs' (crummy name, I know, but I couldn't imagine much else) move around to alter the shape of the skull from a human to a canine shape.

The teeth are a special matter; they remain completely bone, but elongate significantly. The subject usually doesn't notice, since the majority of this new length is kept concealed within the tissue of the mouth until the first change. The 'fang-like' appearance is due to a mild change in circulation of the veins of the teeth-certain areas stop receiving blood after infection, and become brittle, slowly chipping away until the tooth resembles a short fang. A werewolf with his teeth so eroded might be mistaken for a vampire by the small-minded, but most dentists would simply say he has unusually sharp cuspids. When the change occurs, the teeth are forced out of their retracted state, elongating and appearing to grow thicker until the subject bears a mouth full of nasty cutting implements that any wolf would envy.

"Where do they come from, where do they go?"

Where else; the little plastic container next to the washbasin.

That would require the spontaneous transformation of tissue, and the infection would require genetic information about the restructuring of the lymphatic/blood vessel system. Virus in the saliva, perhaps?

Absolutely. I think that Lycanthropy should be a kind of retrovirus that actually alters human DNA to a different standard (much like HIV, but a lot more drastic), that of a werewolf. If it were a virus, it would be included in all bodily fluids of a werewolf, meaning that a bite could infect you. a clawing/mauling could also do it, but have a much smaller chance of infection.

EDIT: No one probably pays attention to my past posts, but I'm going through them anyway. I rewrote my personal werewolf definition, so this post no longer applies. Check the 'your ideal werewolf' thread for details.

Maybe it's apoptosis (programmed cell death)?
Wait, part of a person's tooth is already dead, so..
Now I've been reading too much Detective Conan if that's the first thing I think of...
So maybe there's a chance that the werewolf teeth have a bunch of excess tissue on the inside of the tooth, so apoptosis can occur and the teeth go back to normal when they turn back.

W'rkncacnter wrote:Absolutely. I think that Lycanthropy should be a kind of retrovirus that actually alters human DNA to a different standard (much like HIV, but a lot more drastic), that of a werewolf. If it were a virus, it would be included in all bodily fluids of a werewolf, meaning that a bite could infect you. a clawing/mauling could also do it, but have a much smaller chance of infection.

I've always thought about that how werewolf transformation works and such. As for the teeth having the teeth fall out is odd. I mean if they go back to there human forms they would have to pick up there teeth, like as if they were in a bar fight and got punched in the mouth. The idea of the teeth decaying sounds a bit right. But when they decay do they go in pieces or dust?...or what?

Have you ever chipped a tooth? If you haven't don't try it, it f***ing hurts.

Anyway, the human tooth (at least the outer parts of it) is composed of two layers of material: the outer shell, or enamel, which is tough and solid, and the inner dentin, which is spongy and porous, which allows it to fill with blood (to supply the nerves and keep the tooth from decaying, although the primary blood supply comes from the pulp, which is further in).

My idea for the tooth change is this: The retrovirus causes ameloblasts, the structures responsible for the formation of enamel, to reform inside the tooth. ordinarily these special structures break down before the tooth erupts into the mouth, but the virus conjures these cells back up and keeps them there, meaning that a werewolf doesn't have to brush his teeth as often-they're as regenerative as the rest of his body, unlike those of a human.

The other thing that happens is that the crown of the tooth gets longer and recedes into the gums, while the root of the tooth develops into an amorphous material, that, while strong, is also stretchy and porous. During the shift, this material fills with blood and expands, forcing the crown out to it's full length and giving the tooth the appearance of expanding greatly in size.

The last effect is that the presence of the ameloblasts alters the circulation of the tooth slightly, cutting off circulation for some of the outermost enamel. This enamel grows brittle and slowly wears away with everything the werewolf eats, until the tooth resembles a more slender, sharper, fang-like shape.

The wearing process would be much the same way that one's old skin wears away to be replaced by younger skin-little bits over a long period of time.

Yay for my first post.

How about two rows of teeth, like what a shark has. A front row, and a rear row. The front row is the person's normal human teeth, but the rear row is the longer, typically-hidden fang tooth. Or however you prefer the order, overbite and underbite.

Yeah, it's not exactly the best explanation, but it does handle the whole shapechanging tooth issue. Though, the aesthetics of it are somewhat lacking, and it's probably the most easily noticed suggestion so far. Would be practically impossible to explain to a doctor or dentist, or almost anyone else for that matter, but you could chew your way through one mean steak.