Gold Teeth in the Soviet Era

Tajikistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, was once part of the former Soviet Union, where dental care was free. Gold was the cheapest way to fill and fix a cavity, so it became common, and then fashionable. "In Dushanbe, the capital of this desperately impoverished nation, they still glint at you from almost every mouth. In some instances every tooth has been replaced," J. J. Fergusson wrote in a 1997 Independent article.

But after the Soviet Union fell and Tajiks were allowed to leave the country, "their value as a status symbol has declined, especially among the young," Professor Omar Tairairov, the country's chief dentist, told the Independent. He blamed Western videos, but it proved more psychological than that. Matluba Mamadjanova went to an American language teachers' conference in Athens and came back changed. "There were hundreds of people there and I was the only one with gold teeth," she told Ferguson. "They kept looking at me."