Gold Tooth of Wealth

With my New York brim
And my gold tooth displayed
Nobody give me trouble
Because they know I got it made

— ZZ Top, "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide"

Capping or replacing teeth with gold is a common dental procedure. Because of how conspicuous gold is, especially compared to less noticeable types of dental prostheses, fictional characters who get gold teeth often do so as a status symbol and to show off their wealth. A variation are golden grills (false tooth covers), which arose in the hiphop and rap subcultures of the USA in the late 20th century. In the modern day, gold teeth are regarded as rather ostentatious and may indicate newfound wealth.

Because of the various ways wealthy people can be shady, villainous, or otherwise antagonistic, it is also common for these glitzy golden gnashers to overlap with Villainous Gold Tooth. In the case of wealthy pirates with gold teeth, there's overlap with Dressed to Plunder.

Subtrope of Made O' Gold and Gold Makes Everything Shiny.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World: Until the Prodigies lead a revolution to cause his downfall, Marquis Edwart von Findolph is the leader of Findolph. Doubles with Villainous Gold Tooth, because he's pettily evil and perverted.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Golden Wind: Giorno's Gold Experience appropriately has golden teeth.
  • Steel Ball Run: Gyro, being from a renowned monarchy, has gold teeth that says "Go! Go! Zeppeli!" across each tooth.

Comic Books

• Richie Rich: To correct an overbite, Richie fits his dog, Dollar, with gold braces that were so shiny that it blinded would-be robbers and assailants. It's a fitting choice of material for the richest boy in the world.

Films — Live Action

• Hustle & Flow: Inverted. DJay has a gold tooth. It, along with the gold chain he wears with pride, are supposed to show that he's still small-time in comparison to the platinum-bedecked stars.
• Pacific Rim: Hannibal Chau is decked out in gold, including several gold front teeth. Being a black market Kaiju parts supplier has made him very wealthy.
• The World Is Not Enough: Mister Bullion, the traitorous bodyguard of Valentin Zukovsky carries around a Gem-Encrusted box for his jewelry and has a full row of gold teeth. He is played by Britis DJ Goldie, who really does have a set of golden front teeth.
  Bond: I see you put your money where your mouth is.

Literature

• Blood Fever: Count Carnifex's silver tooth is just one part of his vast silver collection. Doubles as Villainous Gold Tooth because he intends to rule Europe like a Roman emperor.
• Mariel Of Redwall: Gabool the Wild, King of the Searats and Lord of Terramort Isle, replaced his knocked-out incisors with emerald-studded gold teeth. Overlaps with Villainous Gold Tooth because he is a violently insane ruler. His Sanity Slippage over the course of the book only makes him more Ax-Crazy.
• In the Sven Hassel novels, it's mentioned that Chief Mechanic Wolf, Porta's rival in the Black Market, was sparing with his smiles until he had his teeth capped with gold. Now he's always smiling. Porta points out that the gold might have come from a Jew's jaw before he went into the gas chamber so Wolf might get strung up after the war, but he just laughs this off.
• River of Teeth. Winslow Houndstooth has the tusks of his hippo Rudy plated in gold. The hippo is his mount and Action Pet, so needs to have its tusks in good condition. Houndstooth claims to have gotten the gold by removing the gold teeth of people who annoy him, though it's not shown if this is true.

Live-Action TV

• Alma Gêmea: Romeu, the wealthy man who comes into town looking for his long-lost grandchild, has a gold tooth. When he asks Divina to be a lodger at the boarding house, Ofélia says she should take his tooth as a warranty.
• Once Upon a Time: Mr. Gold is a wealthy and powerful pawnbroker who has a golden tooth. Given that he's really Rumplestiltskin, this is fitting.

Music

• Slick Rick is well known for his love for jewelry, and was the first rapper with gold teeth. He references them in his verse on the legendary "La-Di-Da-Di" by Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew
  I said, "Um, mirror, mirror on the wall
  Who is the top choice of them all?"
  There was a rumble jumble, five minutes it lasted
  The mirror said, "You are, you conceited bastard!"
  But that's true, that's why we never have no beef
  So then I washed off the soap and brushed the gold teeth
• Brought up in "Royals" by Lorde as one of the many examples of Conspicuous Consumption she has no experience with.
  But every song's like
  Gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin' in the bathroom
  Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room
• Soulja Slim "Soulja Life Mentality:
  Just cause I'm a black man, push a 2G Lac and
  Mouth full of golds an my neck and wrist frozen
  They label me a drug lord supplyin' the 3rd Ward
• ZZ Top: In "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide," the singer considers his gold tooth a visible indicator of wealth.
• "Candy Paint and Gold Teeth" by Waka Flocka Flame, Bun B and Ludacris is a tribute to Southern Rap culture. If Slick Rick was the Trope Maker for gold teeth in rap, the Southern scene were the Trope Codifier.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer Fantasy: Greasus Goldtooth, Overtyrant of the Ogre Kingdoms and the wealthiest Ogre alive, is know for his bullion teeth. His tribe, the Goldtooth Tribe, also tend to replace their teeth with precious metals as a means of showing off their wealth, even going to far as to incorporate the practice into their religious observances. Ogre tribes each possess a special religious monolith, called a Mawtooth, which is carried to great ogre tribal meetings. The teeth are set up in a great ring, representing the mouth of the Ogre deity, the Great Maw. The Goldtooth tribe has a solid gold Mawtooth as a display of their opulence, and use as their tribal emblem a ring of sharp teeth with a single golden fang, making the god displays this trope as well.

Video Games

• Arc the Lad: Chongara the merchant sports a gold tooth in the anime.
• Borderlands: Marcus's gold tooth is one of the few obvious signs of how ludicrously wealthy he is, on account of being the entire planet's Arms Dealer.
• Cyberpunk 2077: V can be customized to have golden-plated teeth.
• Dead by Daylight: Henry Bayshore, a railroad tycoon, has at least one gold tooth. Doubles as Villainous Gold Tooth because he ruthlessly exploits employees like Caleb and patents their ideas as his own.
• Go! Go! Hypergrind: Bob has one gold incisor — silver or platinum in his alternative palette — despite his young age. He can afford it because he's from a wealthy family, possibly royalty, and though the circumstances of him losing his original incisor aren't revealed, his choice for gold instead of something natural-looking is because he'll take any opportunity he gets to show off his wealth.
• Hiveswap: The Unnamed Purple Troll has a golden tooth, alongside all the other gold adorning him as a highblood.
• Pocket Card Jockey: Mr. Blingman has all gold teeth. He's a good sponsor though, and he's more than willing to fork over some cash if your racing is bad.
• Pokémon Xenoverse: Wallace Daddy is a highly popular musician in addition to being the Hypelion City gym leader. His musical success makes him very well-off. All of his teeth seem to be made of gold.
• Punch-Out!!: In the Wii version, Super Macho Man has a gold tooth to show how rich he is. He's so rich that when you knock him out, dollar bills fly off him.
• Sea of Thieves: The Gold Hoarder has a golden jaw. As a pirate, his success made him obscenely wealthy in the wider world, but his green drove him back into the Sea of Thieves until all that was left was a Skeleton Lord with a lust for gold. Also counts as Villainous Gold Tooth because he's the Arc Villain for the Shores of Gold Tall Tale arc.
• Total War: Warhammer: Greasus Goldtooth, Overtyrant of the Ogre Kingdoms, gets his name from his insatiable love for gold. Some of his teeth have been replaced with gold and his highest ranking Bruisers all remove one tooth and replace it with a golden one as a sign of their respect and loyalty to him.
• World of Warcraft: Harlan Sweete is the leader of the dreaded Irontide Raiders. One of his front teeth is made of gold, likely as a sign of the wealth he displays for all to see in Freehold. Doubles as Villainous Gold Tooth because his pirates have taken over the city and he provides his fleet to Lady Ashvane in her attempt to seize leadership of all of Kul Tiras.

Web Animation

• Disventure Camp: Connor has a single gold tooth. He's a wealthy businessman who can afford to buy the hotel where the eliminated contestants stay in so that he doesn't have to stay there after his elimination.
• Helluva Boss: Crimson's gold tooth is representative of his wealth. Being the head of a thriving crime family in the Greed Ring, it makes a lot of sense that one of his biggest priorities is money. Additionally, it works as a Villainous Gold Tooth, since he's abusive to his son Moxxie, he's homophobic, and he only gets worse.

Western Animation

• Cookie Farnsworth gains a crystal tooth at the end of Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: Goran Vedmire noticeably has a few gold teeth, implying he lost the originals in a fight and replaced them once he became a wealthy lord under the Briarwoods.
• Mixels: Lewt is a living treasure chest who's always collecting more coins for his loot stash. His multiple shining teeth are made up of gold and silver coins.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Growth Spout", Squidward sarcastically asks if the money-grubbing Mr. Krabs would give him his golden tooth as compensation for not calling the police on him. He yanks it out and proffers it immediately.
  SpongeBob: I didn't even know Mr. Krabs had a gold tooth.
  Squidward: Neither did I.

---