As such I can only think of one way for a vampire to develop fangs and it seems kind of messy to me: the environment in the mouth would have to temporarily become acidic so that enamel and dentin could be dissolved (which would dissolve all of the subject's teeth and not just the fangs) and then the environment would return to normal and odontoblasts would be able to build new teeth. Couple that with a change in the DNA of odontoblasts and the new teeth would become fangs.
It's mostly our genetics that controls how long our teeth grow. Since I haven't studied
dentin, I decided to look into it and found:
Dentin is the substance between enamel or cementum and the pulp chamber. It is secreted by the odontoblasts of the dental pulp. The formation of dentin is known as dentinogenesis. The porous, yellow-hued material is made up of 70% inorganic materials, 20% organic materials, and 10% water by weight. Because it is softer than enamel, it decays more rapidly and is subject to severe cavities if not properly treated, but dentin still acts as a protective layer and supports the crown of the tooth.
Dentin is a mineralized connective tissue with an organic matrix of collagenous proteins. Dentin has microscopic channels, called dentinal tubules, which radiate outward through the dentin from the pulp cavity to the exterior cementum or enamel border. The diameter of these tubules range from 2.5 μm near the pulp, to 1.2 μm in the midportion, and 900 nm near the dentino-enamel junction. Although they may have tiny side-branches, the tubules do not intersect with each other. Their length is dictated by the radius of the tooth. The three dimensional configuration of the dentinal tubules is genetically determined.Not sure if destroying the enamel is smart for any person's survival. Tooth development begins when the foetus is about 4 weeks old, but the primary/baby teeth don't begin to mineralise until about 14 weeks. The crowns (part of the tooth that shows in the mouth) complete their formation when the baby is between 1.5-11 months old, depending on the tooth. The roots of teeth take longer, as they develop after the crowns, and continue forming after the tooth has erupted.
Some of the permanent/adult teeth are also forming when a baby is born - usually the central incisors and first molars, since these are the first to erupt in the mouth. Permanent teeth take longer to develop however. It can take 3 years for the crown to complete, 3 years for a latent period, and a further 3 years for the root to complete. However, humans get some adult teeth before the age of 9, because as with the first set, the teeth can erupt before the roots have finished forming.
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