# Movie Makeup

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-makeup/192928>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 4, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-makeup/192928 "2003-08-04T17:03:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SnowDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@SnowDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnowDog)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-makeup/192928/1 "2003-08-04T17:03:11Z")

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I just watched “Adaptation” last night. Chris Cooper’s character was missing his front teeth. How do movie effects people do dental tricks like this, and also like the big chipped tooth in “Dumb and Dumberer”.

Thanks in advance for any information.😛

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-makeup/192928/2 "2003-08-04T17:37:04Z")

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They put something over the tooth to color it black so you don’t see it. We did the same thing in plays in high school. Occasionally in a movie the actor will turn in such a way that you can tell that the tooth is really blacked out and not missing.

For Cape Fear, Robert De Niro paid a dentist to mess up his teeth. After shooting was completed he paid quite a bit more money to have them restored.

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**Author:** ![bryanmaguire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bryanmaguire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bryanmaguire)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-makeup/192928/3 "2003-08-04T20:34:43Z")

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I remember reading that for Dumb and Dumber Jim Carrey had the cap on his front tooth removed.