Dentists in the capital city of Northern Vietnam, were offering black false teeth for sale. Traditionally, the peasants of the Red River delta believed black teeth were much more beautiful than white. A girl with a brilliant white smile here had little chance of finding a husband. So most peasants in the delta still went to great pains to stain their teeth black. For rich clients, dentists offered black dentures with gold fillings.
On arrival to Australia after World War II, some of the Baltic women migrants had a morbid fear of losing their teeth. One of the women said she saw a picture in an American magazine of three smiling Australian girls. The caption read: ‘Pretty? Yes. But their teeth are false.’ On making enquiries, she was told that Australian water was bad for the people’s teeth. Another Latvian lady, was worried about her teeth too, but she was more concerned about our snakes. She had heard terrible stories about how huge reptiles slithered into houses at night and terrorised the occupants.
Source: The Daily News (Perth, WA: 1882-1950), Thu 29 April, 1948
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