Whenever you take a look at a persons face, what’s the first thing that catches your eyes. Is it the nose? Is it the eyes? How about the teeth. The enamel of the maxillary central incisors is often considered the focal point meaning whenever someone looks at your face, they’re looking at your upper incisors. Throughout history dental aesthetics have changed drastically. One part of the world where dental aesthetics was different from our practices in America was in Japan. Long ago the people of Japan had a dental practice known as “ohaguro” which meant blackening of the enamel portion of the teeth. Today many people would find that to be dirty and ugly. But for the Japanese, blackening the teeth symbolized many great things. For men in the upperclass and samurais in high ranks, ohaguro represented dignity and for women ohaguro represented the coming of age and geishas. In those times colors represented many things you wouldn’t even thought to have existed. One negative thing about ohaguro is that it wasn’t a permanent factor. At some point the black dye would wear out and the process had to be repeated to do it again, and by doing that certain ingredients would be needed. Around the Meiji Era of February 5, 1870, the government decided to ban the practices of ohaguro. Another reason why ohaguro died out is when Empress Shouken made an appearance, her teeth were pure white, instead of black. When women saw that, they started to grow more less of ohaguro.
Abstract by Lakeram Ricknauth
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