By Dr. Iman Sadri
Dental jewelry has become fashionable with rappers and hip hop artists over the past decade and a half. Artists such as Lil’ Wayne and Kanye West have sported their grillz to accompany their other fashionable flair. In the Middle East a new trend is emerging, single tooth diamonds. In cities such as Dubai, Tehran and Doha, dentists are placing diamonds on individual teeth.
The jewelry is cemented on the facial anatomy of the teeth, and are most commonly placed on canines and other anterior dentition. Mostly because these teeth are in the esthetic zone. In some instances the jewelry is not authentic diamonds but cubic zirconia, still giving the facade of expensive diamonds.
The esthetic advantage of having diamonds can vary from indvidual to individual. The risks are that the jewerly can pop off, be swallowed and chip other teeth. Despite these harmful risks the growth in diamonds being placed on teeth has increased in the Middle East, and is almost exclusively placed on women’s dentition.
In some cultures in the Middle East since women can’t expose jewelry on their head region, such as their ears, they have elected to place diamonds on their teeth. After all, nobody wants to censor a smile.
Dr. Iman Sadri is the founder of @HollywoodSmileTV
