So my birthday was last week. The big 2-7. I kept it low key not really doing much, just the way I like it. That’s just in terms of celebrating. I wanted to treat myself to a present that was a little off beat. For years I wanted a gold cap tooth, and that’s exactly what I bought myself. I researched how-to’s and where-to’s and found a local place not too far from work. It felt strange walking over to take a mold of my teeth during my lunch break.
But before I jumped into it, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being another ignorant white girl. The last thing I want to do is to offend people with my choice in fashion/jewelry. Turns out, the history of gold teeth is just as you’d expect. Or maybe not. I don’t know what you’re expecting.
Gold was first used in dentistry, and was used as dental castings. Pretty basic and makes sense. They’re sturdy. In other cultures, grills were worn as a status symbol. Gold teeth and gold caps were a sign of wealth. Not only gold, but diamonds and jade as well. Jade stones were directly inserted into their teeth. So teeth jewelry was a thing in AD times.
Surprisingly, it didn’t begin in Egypt. It may or may not have started in the area that is now Italy with the Etruscan people. The other surprising part is that it was rich Etruscan women who wore grills. That’s right – the ladies. Some women actually had their front teeth removed to replace them with gold, which was done by a goldsmith. And what also makes these women different is that they had more rights where they could own property, and they were able to use their money any way they wanted.
Gold teeth fell in and out of fashion, all over different regions of the world. Along with Etruscans, Mayans, Vikings and Filipinos were others who incorporated gold and precious stones into their smiles. At the end of the day, it was always wealth that was featured as the common thread between all these different cultures.
Fast forward to the 1970s, gold teeth began slowly appearing in different neighborhoods of NYC. They also were used to replace fallen out teeth in other countries where dental care wasn’t affordable – it wasn’t a fashion statement.
Grills eventually became that fashion statement, showing up all over NYC. By the 1990s, it was a thing in the hip hop community. From there, people associated gold teeth with hip hop. Grills could be designed as simple, elaborate, engraved, embedded, etc. To this day, grills still embodies wealth, so even though gold teeth went through phases, that aspect of gold teeth will never change.
As for me, I’m not wealthy. It was a look I kinda always secretly loved, and as explained, it’s not only for people in the hip hop community.
I got my gold teeth custom fit, made of 10k rose gold, only paying short of $150 in the diamond district of NYC. Sometimes you gotta do what you wanna do. It’s not a necessity, but just for fun. I do believe in never taking yourself seriously. Especially with your fashion choices.
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