vaderdarth
Master Member
Hi guys, as most of you know I am a dentist. I see many wonderful sculpts of 1:1 busts come down the pike on this forum and I always notice the same issues with the sculpts when the teeth are visible. Keep these rules in mind when "setting your teeth" to your sculptures:
1. The bottoms of the upper teeth typically run parrallel to a plane which crosses thru the alar of the nose and runs to the tragus of the ear. What this means is that if you look at a human head in profile, draw a line from the little round "flap in the ear that covers the "ear hole" and it goes to the rounded bump on the outside of the sides of the nose above the lip. Your upper teeth should fall roughly one inch below this line when viewed in profile.
2. There is a curvature on which the teeth are set which we call the "Curve of Spee" and the "curve of wilson". The curve of spee line runs front to back, the curve of wilson runs side to side. Combined they make a bowl shape. This is if you took a plane and set it on the two imaginary lines in #1. The you take a softball, set it in the dead center of this plane and push downward roughly 1/4". Now the plane is a large bowl shape and the bottom of the bowl is pointing down towards your feet. All the teeth both upper and lower should be set so that they rest one inch below this curved plane (for adults) when the teeth are fully closed (clenched) together.
3. The lower teeth fit inside the upper teeth. No matter how you look at the teeth, either in profile or from the front, the upper teeth should be overlapping the lower teeth by a few millimeters. The outside cusps of the lower molars and premolars, should fit between the outer and inner cusps of the upper molars and premolars.
4. all the teeth should be perpendicular to the curve of spee.
Here are diagrams that illustrate this relationship of an ideal tooth arrangement:
As the mouth opens or closes it does so from a pair of hinges (TMJ joints) on each side of the jaw. The pivot point of the hinge is very close to the opening of the ear. If you stick your finger in your ear canal, and open and close your jaw, you can feel the joint rotating with your fingertip.
As the jaw opens and closes this "hinge" never separates at the ear location and so the upper and lower teeth must fall along the arms of that hinge. Keep this in mind when setting these teeth.
This next diagram shows that hinge relationship:
This next diagram shows the ideal tooth relationship from both a profile and straight on shot which illustrates the overlap of the teeth as well as the arrangement on the sphere created by the curves of spee and wilson.
Obviously everyone is not in an ideal arrangement like in the above pic, but by and large, the teeth are pretty close to this arrangement.
Hope this helps some of you guys on the teeth.
1. The bottoms of the upper teeth typically run parrallel to a plane which crosses thru the alar of the nose and runs to the tragus of the ear. What this means is that if you look at a human head in profile, draw a line from the little round "flap in the ear that covers the "ear hole" and it goes to the rounded bump on the outside of the sides of the nose above the lip. Your upper teeth should fall roughly one inch below this line when viewed in profile.
2. There is a curvature on which the teeth are set which we call the "Curve of Spee" and the "curve of wilson". The curve of spee line runs front to back, the curve of wilson runs side to side. Combined they make a bowl shape. This is if you took a plane and set it on the two imaginary lines in #1. The you take a softball, set it in the dead center of this plane and push downward roughly 1/4". Now the plane is a large bowl shape and the bottom of the bowl is pointing down towards your feet. All the teeth both upper and lower should be set so that they rest one inch below this curved plane (for adults) when the teeth are fully closed (clenched) together.
3. The lower teeth fit inside the upper teeth. No matter how you look at the teeth, either in profile or from the front, the upper teeth should be overlapping the lower teeth by a few millimeters. The outside cusps of the lower molars and premolars, should fit between the outer and inner cusps of the upper molars and premolars.
4. all the teeth should be perpendicular to the curve of spee.
Here are diagrams that illustrate this relationship of an ideal tooth arrangement:
As the mouth opens or closes it does so from a pair of hinges (TMJ joints) on each side of the jaw. The pivot point of the hinge is very close to the opening of the ear. If you stick your finger in your ear canal, and open and close your jaw, you can feel the joint rotating with your fingertip.
As the jaw opens and closes this "hinge" never separates at the ear location and so the upper and lower teeth must fall along the arms of that hinge. Keep this in mind when setting these teeth.
This next diagram shows that hinge relationship:
This next diagram shows the ideal tooth relationship from both a profile and straight on shot which illustrates the overlap of the teeth as well as the arrangement on the sphere created by the curves of spee and wilson.
Obviously everyone is not in an ideal arrangement like in the above pic, but by and large, the teeth are pretty close to this arrangement.
Hope this helps some of you guys on the teeth.
