Tooth ablation

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Tooth ablation is the deliberate removal of healthy teeth for cultural reasons. People have done it all over the world, often as a visible sign of identity, beauty, or coming of age, mourning, or other rites.

How it’s done and its effects
- A wide range of tools have been used, from sticks and rocks to knives and hooks. The practice often happens without anesthesia and includes a risk of infection.
- Removing teeth changes facial appearance, can affect speech and eating, and may leave roots or other damage in the jaw.

Regional and cultural highlights

Africa
- Sudan: infant teeth were removed with hooks and wires before one month old.
- Upper Nile area: a tooth could be loosened and removed with an iron spike.
- Nuer people: teeth are loosened with a blade, often without showing any pain.
- East and Central Africa: a common practice in some groups; in West Africa, it has appeared in a few communities (e.g., among the Ashanti) and in Angola and Namibia.
- Nilotic groups (e.g., Maasai, Dinka, Nuer, Maban): removal of lower teeth at various ages and for different rites, sometimes to aid feeding, language sounds, or adulthood rituals.
- Kenya and Tanzania: some Nilotic groups practice early removal of lower incisors.
- Cape Town and surrounding areas (South Africa): a long-standing rite of passage for many teens, often among lower-income families; “passion gap” or “Cape Flats Smile” is a well-known term for front-teeth removal.

Asia and Oceania
- Indonesia (Sumatra, Borneo, Central Sulawesi): incisors are often removed; methods include striking with a hammer-like tool or pulling with a lever. The Uma people in Central Sulawesi removed all upper and lower incisors as a puberty rite; this practice was banned by colonial authorities in the 1920s.
- Guizhou and parts of Indochina and Formosa (Taiwan): evidence of tooth removal in ancient and traditional practices.
- Marquesas Islands and Hawaii: tooth ablation occurred in certain rites and in relation to leaders’ deaths.
- Aboriginal Australia: tooth removal is a common rite of passage or mourning practice in various communities, with regional variations. Some groups linked specific teeth to moiety or kinship systems.
- Uutaalnganu people (Cape York Peninsula): a complex system tied to moiety identity; which incisor is removed depended on handedness and the individual’s group, with practitioners from the opposite moiety.

New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
- In puberty, girls sometimes have the two upper central incisors removed as a sign of entering womanhood, also tied to beliefs about suffering and social transition.

Modern view
- Today, many communities no longer practice tooth ablation, or do so much less often. Dentists generally do not support removing healthy teeth, and many places have replaced the practice with dentures or other cosmetic options.

In short, tooth ablation is an ancient, cross-cultural practice with many different methods and meanings, reflecting how people use the body to mark identity, status, and life transitions.