I’ll start this section off with another disclaimer because, next to your eyes, your teeth are the most sensitive and delicate body parts you will be working with. Now you’re probably thinking, "Eyes, I can understand, but teeth? Really? They’re hard. There are a lot of them. They’re designed for tearing through meat and chewing food into itsy bitsy little pieces!" True, we don’t always think of our teeth as sensitive and delicate. . . until something is wrong with them, and then we find out how tough (or not) we really are. Many of us would certainly divulge state secrets if some lunatic went to messing with our sensitive and delicate teeth. Anyone remember Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man? "Is it safe?" Yeeeeoowww!
For this reason alone, I caution you about the risk involved in working in and around anyone’s mouth without being a licensed dental technician. Any dental appliance that is not made by a licensed dental technician is to be considered and treated as cosmetic only, not therapeutic or corrective. Cosmetic (theatrical) dental appliances are not suitable for chewing food. Never use force when inserting or removing a cosmetic dental appliance. I stated this in Chapter 3 and am reiterating it here in case you missed it there: It is illegal to practice dentistry without a license. (I must’ve been a lawyer in a past life to feel the need to say something so obvious. Sorry.) While I’m still on the subject, you should never attempt to take an impression of someone’s teeth if they’re wearing any kind of braces, real dentures, or removable bridge.