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By: Rayna Gayle
In recent years, tooth jewelry has become a popular accessory for white celebrities to sport. We’ve seen people such as Miley Cyrus wearing a grill on multiple occasions, Lana Del Ray wearing a gold tooth, and more recently many celebrities such as Hailey Bieber have been getting diamonds put in their teeth, causing many other people to do the same. With this recent popularization of tooth jewelry by non-POC, it can be easy to forget the roots of this jewelry.
Adorning teeth with jewels is by no means a new phenomenon, many ancient civilizations would have jewels implanted in their teeth to symbolize wealth, status, as well as a higher power. These people included those in modern-day Turkey, Mayans, and Etruscans in Italy. Later, it was most common among recently freed slaves that would get gold teeth to prevent their teeth from completely decaying. Gold is one of the cheapest ways to fill cavities so many people of African American and West Indian descent that were of lower class living in the Bronx and Brooklyn New York had gold teeth. Then, it was popularized by people within hip-hop culture who were mostly black and Latinx. At this time, people, specifically non-POC saw those who wore teeth jewelry such as Nelly and Flava Flav as “ghetto” or tacky. There was a perception that people who wear these are not respectable, that they are less than those that do not have them.
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So, with this background, I find it very interesting that now, tooth jewelry is getting more of a positive connotation among people outside of POC circles. It is unsurprising that when white people begin embracing this practice, people's mindset changes. Now it’s no longer trashy, but it’s the latest trend at least when white people are wearing them. As we’ve seen countless times, when people of color embrace something, usually having to do with fashion, it’s trashy, but when a few white celebrities come along and embrace it, without giving any credit to the people that were ridiculed for doing the exact same thing, it becomes a fad. This is a precise example of cultural appropriation which is defined as “The adoption, usually without acknowledgment, of cultural identity markers from subcultures or minority communities into mainstream culture by people with a relatively privileged status.”
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The key thing is that people, especially non-POC that are getting tooth jewelry educate themselves on the rich history behind it. It’s always important to inform yourself about the things that you’re doing, following trends blindly can be irresponsible, especially when they are culturally rooted.
Sources
⋆https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3680474/1-600-year-old-woman-jewels-teeth-di scovered-ancient-Mexican-burial-ground.html
⋆ https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/tooth-gems-history-48671592
⋆ https://cafemom.com/lifestyle/tooth-gems