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I was wondering if it possible to have a set of teeth made of metal (i didn't chose any metal in particular, it could be silver, gold, what ever), and if so, does it have to remove every tooth and make use of a manufactured denture, can it be done with classic forge metalsmithing, is there severe injuries involved in the process, could it be painful in everyday life ?

And i have the same question regarding fingernails, i was picturing it in my mind kind of what it looks like in the Red Hiding Hood movie (Father Solomon's fingers), a quite bit longer, but more deadly as Wolverine's claws can be.

In my fantasy world, there is some healing magic if necessary, it's "just" sped-up rejuvenation process (e.g it can't put back a missing arm).

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    $\begingroup$ It seems you didn't do any research considered your wondering. History of dentistry is pretty well documented and accesible. Fingernails is tips. You are either bind bny real nails growing out and pushing the metal or using magic to stop real nails from growing. $\endgroup$
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 13:16
  • $\begingroup$ pretty sure gold fake teeth exist since antiquity or at least since medieval especially the rich at least i know asian did since they have easy access to sugar and spice even rotting teeth become a boasting to rich nobility for finger nail do you mean something like this? its pretty common in asian nobility too especially woman. $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 16:09
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    $\begingroup$ if you want metal nail, maybe use nail polish method instead by applying melted or powdered precious metal to the fingernail, iam not sure pulling out fingernail and merging the finger with fake metal nail is safe it seems risky in getting infection or irritation/burn and it definitely uncomfortable or very hurt. $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 16:26
  • $\begingroup$ if you want biologically attached metal nail* (to slow to edit it, suffer from lag) $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 16:32
  • $\begingroup$ Upvote because I do really wanna see if anyone with a medical background could weigh in on the plausibility of artificial metal nails, as there really doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of info out there on this subject $\endgroup$
    – Alex
    Commented May 14, 2020 at 5:06

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Absolutely

Dentures are very very old. The Etruscans started making dentures around 700BC. Below is a picture of a replica from the Science Museum. You could easily make your dentures from any metal you have in your world.

Replica of very old dentures

As for fingernails, I suggest you check out Wikipedia's list of premodern hand weapons. You might consider an adaptation of the bagh nakh, pictured below.

Ancient Wolverine-style hand weapon

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  • $\begingroup$ I have done more in-depth research (i should have done it before even asking, but it can't be undone), i think i'll choose the dental implants option. Thanks for your help. But regarding nail, i think my question was unclear because i'm not looking for an outer-body weapon (i don't know if that's clear more or less). I saw it was possible to remove nail's matrix to remove it entirely and cancel nail growth, but if doing so, is it possible to replace the nail removed with a custom material (metal in my needs), to basically have artificial metal nails. I didn't found any surgery like this. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Massicard
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ bagh nakh is use more like claw hidden in the palm though $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Commented May 13, 2020 at 16:09
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The fingernail portion of this question piked my interest. Sure you could attach a blade to the finger that would look something like thisenter image description here

But could you really surgically replace a nail with a metal blade? As far as my googling can tell as this hasn’t been done before, which makes sense.

It’d be very impractical. Not cutting yourself or others during daily tasks, like cleaning yourself, intimacy, and scratching would require a lot of practice. On top of that I just don’t think it’d be a very good weapon.

The length required to really do any damage would be easy to break and further complicate the above problems. On top of that you’d have to get very close to the opponent, which is opens yourself up to injury. This becomes almost impossible against an opponent with a sword and shield. A sword or a dagger would be more useful in every way.

But still is it possible to do this? I’ve done a little bit of research and as far as I’m able to tell this isn’t a super common procedure as nails grow back but I did find this study on prothetic fingernails .

Despite all efforts, surgical methods of replacement have not proven to be very satisfactory. Like artificial eyes, techniques for making an artificial fingernail of good likeness have been available for many years. The problem has been a satisfactory method of attaching the artificial fingernail to the digit and eventually that of making the artificial nail sufficiently thin.

So it does seem that this is difficult even in the modern day. I’m not sure how someone would be able to create a suitably metal nail replacement, much less how to attach it before modern surgical procedures. Perhaps it could be attached like normal false nails, the nail could be shaved down and then the metal nail could be attached using a similar glue. Still though, I believe the techniques and materials are A pretty modern development and even in the modern day acrylic nails usually don’t last longer than a few months.

The abstract then goes on to describe a modern technique that seems to work better, but due to my lack of education in the medical field I don’t really understand exactly what that technique looks like, maybe someone with a better understanding can parse this because it could be interesting if the procedure could be done in the medieval time period.

So i think replacing nails with a metal material would be almost impossible in the medieval era, and even if it could be done I don’t think it’d be very practical aside from the aesthetic of it. Removal-able claws or brass knuckles would do the job way better

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  • $\begingroup$ Okay, boys! Time to break out the fingerknife gloves! $\endgroup$
    – In Hoc Signo
    Commented May 14, 2020 at 15:10

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