“In 2026, scientists examined 2000-year-old skulls from northern Vietnam and found something that looks wrong to modern eyes–every single tooth, perfectly, deliberately black.”
For a thousand years in Asia, a beautiful smile was not judged by its white teeth, but by the darkness beyond the lips. The mature, elegant woman stained her teeth to a shiny black in a cultural practice called ohaguro. The custom flourished in Japan as ohaguro, Vietnam as nhuộm răng, as well as in the Philippines, and among Native American tribes. In the 19th century, Western colonial officials reacted with shock, denouncing blackened teeth as primitive and barbaric. Their reactions transformed admiration and acceptance into rejection and disgust. The decline of ohaguro shows that ideas of beauty are rarely universal. Cultural power shapes the perception of beauty.
The Earliest Origins of Tooth Blackening
A Tonkin woman with black-painted teeth, 1908. (Pierre Dieulefils/Public Domain)
According to a recent study in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the oldest evidence of tooth blackening dates to the Iron Age site of Dong Xa, in Vietnam. The skulls recovered from three burials preserved teeth coated in a dark layer too deliberate to dismiss as ordinary staining. The individuals observed the enduring beauty traditions in Southeast Asia. Many people still observe this custom.
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Blackened teeth had surprising dental benefits. The dark coating on the teeth may have reduced tooth decay, strengthened enamel, prevented cavities, and slowed tooth erosion. Since early societies lacked skilled dentistry, the benefits encouraged the spread of the practice.
Iron Age skulls from the Dong Xa site in Vietnam show evidence of blackened teeth (Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences/CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
The 2,000-Year-Old Skulls That Started Everything
During chemical analysis, scientists found that the black dye used to color the teeth was made by dissolving iron filings in vinegar and mixing them with tannins from plants such as tea or gallnuts. This chemical mixture formed a black paste that was applied repeatedly for many weeks. Chemical analysis of 2,000-year-old human teeth from the Dong Xa site in northern Vietnam has confirmed that ancient inhabitants deliberately blackened their enamel.
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The settlement and cemetery date to Vietnam’s Iron Age, roughly 550 BC to AD 50, and some of the burials include teeth with a striking black coating.
Working from those remains, archaeologist Yue Zhang at the Australian National University matched the ancient coating to intentional tooth blackening that occurred in Vietnam for centuries. Two of the teeth were from the Iron Age. A third tooth, dating to 400 years ago, also shows tooth blackening.
What Black Teeth Actually Meant in Asian Society
A married woman, known by her red-coloured teeth, Japan. (National Museum of Denmark/NKCR-FC)
Asian cultures associated tooth blackening with elegance and elite society. Women considered a contrast between white skin and black teeth to be very beautiful. Makeup included white facial coloring that contrasted with blackened eyebrows and hair. In medieval and early modern Japan, a glossy black smile looked sophisticated. As women grew older and married, ohaguro became a marker of social status.
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During the Edo Period, both men and women blackened their teeth, especially samurai and court nobles. In some communities, tooth blackening was part of rituals. Blackened teeth distinguished civilized humans from animals or evil spirits. Since animal teeth are naturally white, deliberately darkening the teeth could symbolize culture, maturity, and humanity.
Teeth Blackening in the Americas
Though more common in Southeast Asia, Indigenous groups in the Americas also had traditions of cosmetic and medicinal dental staining. Teeth blackening in the Americas was a deliberate cultural practice primarily found among Indigenous groups in Western Amazonia and Mesoamerica. While famously celebrated across Southeast Asia (such as ohaguro in Japan and nhuộm răng in Vietnam), independent traditions of cosmetic and medicinal dental staining also spanned the American continents.
A Sengseng boy displays his recently blackened teeth. Usually, showing one’s teeth was a display of aggression, and, especially in the company of one’s in-laws, care was taken to cover the mouth when laughing (Goodale and Chowning 1996:164). (From Zumbroich, Thomas. “'We Blacken Our Teeth with Oko to Make Them Firm' - Teeth Blackening in Oceania .” Anthropologica 57(2), 2016.)
Teeth blackening in the Americas was concentrated in the rainforests of northern Peru and Ecuador. According to Dr. Thomas Zumbrioch, an Oxford anthropologist, the Shuar and Yagua Peoples blackened their teeth with pastes made from native plants. Both men and women chewed the leaves, young shoots, and fruit of more than 40 plants. In the Amazon, blackened teeth showed the transition from puberty to adulthood. Tannin-rich plants are natural dental sealants that reduce tooth decay and protect the teeth of the elderly.
In pre-Columbian civilizations, dental staining was fashionable for the most important members of the group. Beginning with the Otomi and Huaxtec women, the practice spread to Aztec nobles. Elite women used a red or glossy black stain. The red stain came from cochineal, a pigment collected from insects, or by mixing tree resin with mineral soot. Since animal teeth were white, dental stains are evidence of human superiority.
How the West Decided Black Teeth Were Ugly
The practice began to decline in the late 19th century. Asian governments wanted to adopt modern Western customs. Officials considered blackened teeth to be old-fashioned. In Japan, reforms during the Meiji Era supported Western appearance, and white teeth replaced blackened teeth as more acceptable. Ironically, today’s North American pop culture has inspired a revival of dental darkening, particularly among artists and hip-hop performers. Those who favor a Goth appearance use black, red, and purple stains. Big city jewelers display black grills - metal mouthpieces that mimic the glossy black lacquer of the past. The ancient practice has transformed into fashionable streetwear.
The history of dental staining is a reminder that beauty standards are not fixed. Society’s influences can dictate new standards of beauty. The only thing that changed wasn’t the teeth, it was who decided what beauty meant.
Top Image: Left; A Tonkin woman with black-painted teeth, 1908. (Pierre Dieulefils/Public Domain) Right Woman Applying Ohaguro While Looking into a Mirror (Utagawa Kunisada/Public Domain
By Ramsey Hardin
References
Brahambhatt, Rupendra. 2026. “The Secret Behind Vietnam's 2,000-Year-Old Black Teeth Fashion Is Now Out.” ZME Science. https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/tooth-blackening-in-ancient-vietnam/
Lesté-Lasserre, Christa. 2026. “How Did Ancient Vietnamese People Get Such Black Smiles?” Science.
https://www.science.org/content/article/how-did-ancient-vietnamese-people-get-such-black-smiles.
Magnus, J. B. 2025. “Black Teeth Were Beautiful.” YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw8Xqq74W04.
Zhang, Y., Wang, Ys., Nguyen, V. et al. A kingdom with blackened teeth 2,000 years ago: tracing the practice of tooth blackening in ancient Vietnam. Archaeol Anthropol Sci18, 29 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02366-5
Zumbroich, Thomas. “‘Cutting Old Life into New’: Teeth Blackening in Western Amazonia.” Anthropos 108(1): 53–75, 2013. doi:10.5771/0257-9774-2013-1-53.https://www.academia.edu/7609588/_Cutting_Old_Life_into_New_Teeth_Blackening_in_Western_Amazonia
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