Blacken the teeth– a feature of ancient culture of VietNamese

Blacken the teeth is an old custom of the Vietnamese nation, dated from Hung Vuong times. It is together with the custom of chewing betel has become a typical feature of Vietnamese culture, distinguishing from other ethnic groups. Not only Viet people, one ethnic group of Vietnamese people, but also other groups such as Muong, Thai, Si La... have this custom but it differs from place to place within the territory of Vietnam. Besides women, men also blacken the teeth and this custom is popular everywhere in Vietnam. A set of black teeth used to be one of ten traits of beauty of Vietnamese women in the past:

"First love the tuft of hair

Second love impassioned way of speaking

Third love dimpled cheeks of girls

Fourth love glossy teeth blacker than apple's pip"

People only dye their teeth after their milk-tooth have been changed. That is the most suitable time to dye because the teeth are just formed and in the completing process and consequently the dye will easily penetrate into the teeth to make them more invory-coloured. The method of dying is often simple; however, the upper strata, noblemen and madarin prefer to dye with more fussy way by different methods from the previous generations. Hue is considered to be the thriving capital of blacken the teeth because the king, queen, imperial maid, mandarin, scholar gentry and patricians there love to blacken the teeth very much.

In order to have a set of shining black , glossy and charming teeth "Black teeth who dye for me", you must follow specific steps. To begin dying, your mouth and teeth have to be sanitised until they are totally clean. In the first three days, you ought to brush and pick your teeth with dried betel-nut husk and stewed powdered coal mixed with salt. One day before dying, you need to chew lemon, hold it in mouth and rinse your mouth by white wine mingled with lemon juice. The effect of the first extract of this juice is to erode the enamel to make depression on it. This time is when you feel most painful and your teeth, lip, tounge, gums and mucous membrane swell and two jaws are very sore. The dye substance is made of shellac prepared 7-10 days ago with the right portion of shellac and the first extract lemon juice, depending on individual. It will be daubed on a white piece of cloth or silk. Using dye substance happens after dinner, then the pad will be replaced at midnight.

In the next morning, the pad will be disengaged softly in order to avoid rubbing off the paint which has just been made in the previous night. After taking out the drug, it is imperative to rinse your mouth with fish sauce, or maybe bittern to eliminate the substance completely. The person dying must close his mouth nearly all the night to prevent from the pad going out of the mouth. He needs to do this two times each night and in seven nights. In this period of time he can only gulp food but not chew. When you see the dark red colour, the colour of lac, it is time for the second stage of spreading blackening solution on your teeth. Blackening solution is a mixture of iron sulphate and shellac and is applied in two days. Then you have to rinse your mouth with a drug called black powder liquid. The last stage is to fix it by sap from dipper made of coconut shell. This sap is used by this way: dry coconut shell many times under the sun, then burn it on live coals and put this burning shell on an iron bush-hook. From that coconut shell, a liquid of black sap drops out and it is used to apply on the teeth. After that, it creates a layer of ferment on the teeth. This stage is called "killing teeth". After finishing this step, that person can have a set of teeth which is as black as seed of custard-apple.

Since the Western civilization penetrates strongly into our country (1862), especially in the 1930s, many people have scraped their black teeth hurriedly to have white teeth slovenly in order to prove that they were pioneers attending the social reform advent, renovating movement and women's liberation movement. The custom blacken the teeth has gone into oblivion.

Source: Vietnam Simple