Bear Skull Cleaning - Keeping the teeth as is

[seeth07]

Does anyone know a good way/process to clean up a bear skull for mounting but still keeping the teeth in tact just the way they look? I'd prefer to not have them looking pure white like the rest of the skull and with my old bear and extremely damaged teeth, I'm really worried about there being nothing left to them during the cleaning process.

 

[morley.tyler]

Pull the teeth now, bleach the skull, and superglue the teeth back in. Take quality pics as you go and label each tooth.

 

[seeth07]

Pull the teeth now, bleach the skull, and superglue the teeth back in. Take quality pics as you go and label each tooth.

anywhere you can point me to on how to pull the teeth correctly without damaging them?

 

[Gut Shot]

No need to pull teeth. I just boil the skull and take care not to get the bleaching agent on the teeth.

 

[idelkslayer]

I also like to preserve the color of the teeth with all their natural staining and character.

Once the skull has simmered long enough to soften and break up the connective tissue it is very easy to pull the canines and incisors. The molars sometimes give you a little trouble but they come out easily enough. I've never needed to do anything special to protect the teeth from breaking and I just work slowly to make sure I don't damage any part of the skull. The bone can be very thin over the canines but they usually come out so easily that it isn't a problem. Make sure you have a system to put all the teeth back in the right order. After whitening the skull you can glue them back in with just about any super glue or epoxy.