Dental work for toothache leads actor to lose his hobbit feet

Actor Billy Boyd, best known as Pippin in the trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," perspired, ungluing his hairy hobbit feet while receiving a dental filling sans a numbing agent so he could get back to work. The story was published on September 26 on ABC 4.

Billy Boyd. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

For the first time in a decade, Boyd reunited with fellow hobbits, Frodo and Merry, better known as actors Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan, respectively, at the 2024 edition of FanX in Salt Lake City.

During the convention, Boyd recounted how a debilitating toothache occurred while he was filming the first fantasy film, which debuted in 2001. Boyd explained that he had already donned his hobbit feet -- which took an hour to glue, paint, and add hair to-- when his toothache became unbearable, according to the story.

Boyd had no choice but to visit the dentist as a hobbit. To maintain the secrecy of his costume and role, a robe was draped over him and his prosthetic feet were covered with enormous moon boots, according to the news story.

After the dentist confirmed that he needed a tooth filled, Boyd informed the clinician that his mouth could not be numbed because he had lines to recite later that day. He agreed to get the filling without any numbing agents after he was warned of the pain.

Unfortunately, Boyd recounted that he sweated so much during the dental treatment that his prosthetic feet fell off. Regluing the feet took nearly as much time as it would have taken for the numbing anesthetic to wear off, he said in the story.