Prom dress? Check. Corsage? Check. Gold Teeth? WTFH?

[Queasy]

Link

Fugly factor increased by 10

At this month's prom, Mika Castro is going to be the bling of the ball. The 18-year-old chose removable gold teeth covers, or "grills," to make fashion history at Westmoor High in Daly City.

"I like the way they shine," said Castro, showing off a row of eight gilded teeth behind her bottom lip. "No one at our school has them, but I'm starting to see them on girls on the bus more often."

No longer just for rappers and street toughs, gold teeth have gone to the girls. For prom or a day in the park, girls from the Bay Area to the Bayou to the Bronx are accessorizing their smiles. Bay Area makers of the removable mouthwear say teenage girls are the fastest-growing segment of their customer base.

"Three years ago, if a girl came in here and placed an order, it woulda been like, 'Whaaat?' " said Martin Montoya, who makes molds for the ladies at Gold Tooth Masters in Oakland. "Now girls are 15 percent of our business."

A decade ago, only moneyed mouths sported shiny metal. Rappers like Master P, Nelly and Snoop Dogg dropped thousands for their gold teeth. Today, grills are a multimillion-dollar business with so much competition -- from storefront shops, the Internet and a small but growing number of dentists -- that makers have dropped prices to less than $20 per tooth.

While most dentists shudder at the thought of all that bacteria growing behind the bling, jewelers who make the teeth are counting their gold.

A resurgence of interest from females is a lifesaver for gold tooth "master" James Cho of JC Jewelry in Oakland, who had been considering moving out of the Bay Area to where the market is less saturated by gold teeth.

"At first, all my customers were young black men, and once they bought their teeth, they really don't need to buy more," he said. "Now, all kinds of people come in, college students from UC Berkeley, grandparents ... but lately I've been getting a lot of teenage girls -- of all races."

Gold teeth are also peeking out of the mouths of the Hollywood mainstream: Movie star Johnny Depp wore gold teeth to the Oscars, and Madonna also gave it a try.

Teenagers, after a few weeks of saving up lawn-mowing and babysitting money, can choose from more than two dozen Bay Area shops to decorate their mouths.

 

[vshah]

she's not so great to begin with....yikes

 

[ohtwell]

Hahahahahaha!!

That is ridiculous!


: ) Amanda

 

[Cal166]

That's just fugly. Stupid girls

 

[loup garou]

Practicing for prom night.

 

[Toasthead]

wtf? do people have nothing better to spend money on?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Toasthead
wtf? do people have nothing better to spend money on?

I honestly don't know who I'd like to try and knock some sense into first. The kid or the parent(s).

 

[ravana]

Dummies Guide to How to plan bad memories.

 

[PingSpike]

Brings new meaning to the saying "Its better to be quiet and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

 

[CVSiN]

sigh what could they possibly see in that that is attractive in anyway shape or form...

nothing says gutter trash like a "grill"

 

[Grunt03]

just goes to show you that Gold cannot make everything look better.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: werk
Practicing for prom night.

Notice the man and child in the background....persumably baby and baby-daddy. I hate to stereotype, but I can't help but assume that the demographic going for these is probably also the teen mother demographic.

Then again, there are so many teen mothers, it's probably a worthless metric anyway.

 

[Pepsei]

WOW, who wants to dance with the female version of "jaws" from james bond?

 

[halik]

white trash what?

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: werk
Practicing for prom night.

Notice the man and child in the background....persumably baby and baby-daddy. I hate to stereotype, but I can't help but assume that the demographic going for these is probably also the teen mother demographic.

Then again, there are so many teen mothers, it's probably a worthless metric anyway.

my thoughts exactly ... could be her brother

 

[Hyperblaze]

I'm completely speechless.

I don't remember kids being that stupid back years ago.

 

[nakedfrog]

Holy crap, that looks like, uh, crap

 

[PsharkJF]

Only in California.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
Only in California.

pffft. Yeah right.

 

[Injury]

Proof that rap fans are really just media-driven whores.

 

[MaxDepth]

Hmm. $20 a tooth. Let's see if they actually have a mouthfull of teeth...

Hey! That's rent money!
When did they say prom was?
:evil:

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Teenagers are idiots. If teenagers run out of old ways to be idiots they'll invent new ways to be idiots. New way, but underneath it all lies the same old idiotic teenagers.

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

nice, a new way to identify white trash §lut§ (as if there arn't enough)

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: werk
Practicing for prom night.

:Q

 

[Quasmo]

There are about 300 gold teeth parlors in Savannah, its crazy, apparently everyone knows how to make gold teeth, SAME DAY! its rediculous.