Thursday, July 13, 2006
Golden Teeth
For the uninitiated who read the previous post -- the mention of golden teeth may have raised a question. The old man in the banya refers to a handsome boy to introduce to me who has golden teeth. This needs some explanation for those who don't know Uzbekistan well.
There’s an old joke from the end of the Soviet Union, when droves of non-Uzbeks left the country. In typical Soviet fashion, it plays with racial stereotypes and is not politically correct in the least. It goes: "all the Russians have left, they had golden hands...all the Jews have left, they had golden brains. What are we left with? Golden teeth."
At first, I thought that it was just a legacy of Soviet dentistry or dental restoration. I was shocked to find out that Uzbeks purposefully replaced their teeth with gold ones because for aesthetic purposes. They were proud of their golden teeth. It was a display of wealth, influence, prestige.. Many an Uzbek girl I knew, beautiful girls, with mouths full of pearly white teeth, upon being given up into marriage into wealthy families, within a week of a wedding had an upper rack of all gold.
In Uzbekistan, there are so many golden teeth; they are almost surreal at first. But after a while, you stop noticing them.
Uzbeks, only if they have left the country, realize that golden teeth are uncommon to most of the world. I was in New York with an Uzbek friend with a rack and he noticed, walking around the city that only black hip-hop youth had golden teeth or “grills.” This Uzbek began to understand what it was like to have everyone staring at you. He began to feel self-conscious and spoke very little. When he did open his mouth to speak, he kept his upper lip as closed as possible, to cover his upper teeth.
I knew of a case of an Uzbek woman, who had lovely ivory white teeth. She worked for an American organization. Apparently, she too, once upon a time, had the rack. After she was sent to her headquarters for training in the US, she returned and then changed her teeth for a white set. She probably experienced a lot of stares while in the US.
Maybe I lived around them for too long, but I think they're pretty cool. And they're catching on here, too.
Check this out from “Grill Mouth” http://www.grillmouth.com/
Blingy selections can be found at hustlagrillz, which boasts FDA approved and Hustla certified grills:
http://hustlagrillz.com/grillz-gold-teeth-hip-hop/
Before you know it, you might have a set of grills too! Read this BBC Business News Report about grills going mainstream.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1471097.stm ¶ 6:13 AM
For the uninitiated who read the previous post -- the mention of golden teeth may have raised a question. The old man in the banya refers to a handsome boy to introduce to me who has golden teeth. This needs some explanation for those who don't know Uzbekistan well.
There’s an old joke from the end of the Soviet Union, when droves of non-Uzbeks left the country. In typical Soviet fashion, it plays with racial stereotypes and is not politically correct in the least. It goes: "all the Russians have left, they had golden hands...all the Jews have left, they had golden brains. What are we left with? Golden teeth."
At first, I thought that it was just a legacy of Soviet dentistry or dental restoration. I was shocked to find out that Uzbeks purposefully replaced their teeth with gold ones because for aesthetic purposes. They were proud of their golden teeth. It was a display of wealth, influence, prestige.. Many an Uzbek girl I knew, beautiful girls, with mouths full of pearly white teeth, upon being given up into marriage into wealthy families, within a week of a wedding had an upper rack of all gold.
In Uzbekistan, there are so many golden teeth; they are almost surreal at first. But after a while, you stop noticing them.
Uzbeks, only if they have left the country, realize that golden teeth are uncommon to most of the world. I was in New York with an Uzbek friend with a rack and he noticed, walking around the city that only black hip-hop youth had golden teeth or “grills.” This Uzbek began to understand what it was like to have everyone staring at you. He began to feel self-conscious and spoke very little. When he did open his mouth to speak, he kept his upper lip as closed as possible, to cover his upper teeth.
I knew of a case of an Uzbek woman, who had lovely ivory white teeth. She worked for an American organization. Apparently, she too, once upon a time, had the rack. After she was sent to her headquarters for training in the US, she returned and then changed her teeth for a white set. She probably experienced a lot of stares while in the US.
Maybe I lived around them for too long, but I think they're pretty cool. And they're catching on here, too.
Check this out from “Grill Mouth” http://www.grillmouth.com/
Whether you call them grills, plates, shines, caps, or choppers, a custom made grill is the way to go when you're looking to make a really brave fashion statement.
Blingy selections can be found at hustlagrillz, which boasts FDA approved and Hustla certified grills:
http://hustlagrillz.com/grillz-gold-teeth-hip-hop/
Before you know it, you might have a set of grills too! Read this BBC Business News Report about grills going mainstream.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1471097.stm ¶ 6:13 AM
