Been wondering how they got Ed Helm’s missing tooth to look so real in The Hangover? Easy. They yanked it out. Ed Helms is so method.

Contact Music reports that the tooth was an implant he’s had in his mouth for more than 20 years. Apparently Helms was born missing one tooth and at the age of 15 had it replaced with an implant. He says, “When the part came up we actually tried a few alternatives, like blacking it out and using a prosthetic device, which made me look like a horse... Then I just called my dentist and I took it out for three months.”

Even though it was a fake tooth anyway, it doesn’t sound like having it pulled was particularly pleasant. “He (dentist) actually had to break the crown off and then unscrew the post from the implant. That leaves a huge hole in your gum and the tissue has to stay healthy, so he screwed in a piece that his lab made that matched my gum tissue. Once the movie was done I got a fresh new implant.” Ouch. I don’t know what most of the words in those sentences mean, but almost none of them sound fun.