Gold teeth

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Gold dental fixtures, originally intended for dental restoration, have become a popular fashion trend amongst devotees to hip hop culture in the United States. While some rap musicians have had their gold teeth permanently attached to existing teeth, most people who purchase them for aesthetic purposes opt for removable gold teeth caps. In 2005, Nelly released the rap single Grillz which promotes the dental apparati. Commonly inscribed on "grills" are names of women, references to favorite substances, pictures, and names.

1 Dental Restoration
2 Store of Value
3 World War II
4 In popular culture
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Dental Restoration

Dentists have used gold for filling cavities (before mercury amalgam became available), for crowns, and for other purposes. Gold has certain advantages:

It is malleable.
It is almost immune to corrosion.
It is hard enough to form a biting surface that can be used for years.

Gold was used before silver was available and continued to be used for specialized purposes. After 1980, gold inlays, and gold foil work were rare in the United States.

[edit] Store of Value

Since Gold is an ancient store of value, a gold tooth can become an emergency cash reserve. One sometimes hears the heart-rending tale of a man, neither rich nor poor, who asks a dentist to extract a gold tooth and to give him the monetary value of the gold, in order to pay for life-saving surgery for his daughter^{[citation needed]}. This is hardly believable since a gold crown usually contains far less than one ounce of gold. Other people may have sacrificed gold teeth when they were obliged to flee their native countries or for other emergencies. In more recent times, many people use credit cards for emergency cash, but these have only existed in the post-World War II era, and many modern people do not possess them. Coincidentally, few modern people possess gold teeth.

[edit] World War II

During the Holocaust, gold teeth were harvested from the victims of Nazi extermination camps in order to be refined back into marketable gold. ^{[1] [2]}

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gold teeth, eyeglasses, currency, jewelry, hair, clothing, and other usable items were sorted and stored in a building the inmates referred to as "Canada", for mysterious reasons. The teeth were melted down and the gold was separated and cast into standard gold ingots, which were sent to Swiss banks for trading. Other materials were used in various ways, some of which were imaginary.

David Robb, author of the book Operation Hollywood, has also cited that World War II United States Marines had removed gold teeth from Japanese soldiers. He said the following regarding the 2002 film Windtalkers:

"There was a scene in the film in which a soldier on the battlefield is seen creeping along after a battle in the Pacific, with a bayonet, pulling the gold teeth out of dead Japanese soldiers.

This really [was done] during WW2 by American marines. I actually have a tape showing a marine with a pair of pliers pulling the gold out of a dead Japanese soldier's mouth. The Marine corps, however, does not want this face of war being shown on film, so they said 'this has to go'." ^[3]

[edit] In popular culture

In Patricia Cornwell's 1995 novel Potter's Field, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta finds gold fillings in the mouth of a murder victim. Dental records are unavailable for this homeless woman, but Scarpetta finds a professional society comprising the few dentists still using gold foil to fill teeth.