Grills - those jewellery-studded, gold and platinum mouthguards beloved of rap stars who want to look like Bond villains - are coming under scrutiny in the US, writes David Fickling.
According to the American Dental Association, a mouthful of bling risks bringing on everything from tooth decay to allergic reactions.
Ho hum. So grills are the latest body adornment to threaten the youth since the last one. Depending on your measurement of panic, that would be either when Zara Phillips got her tongue piercing (risking cracked enamel, cysts, toxic shock syndrome and choking, according to the British Dental Association) or when David Beckham went under the tattooist's needle (toying with Hepatitis B, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners).
There's nothing new about the craze for gold teeth. Boxer Jack Johnson was sporting them in the early years of the 20th century, along with a lifestyle - his own night club and jazz band, a sideline in acting, sipping champagne while he walked his pet leopard - that would make modern rap stars proud.
Public Enemy's Flavor Flav has been wearing gold-capped teeth since the 1980s, and Goldie was flogging fronts from the fashion capital of Walsall long before he became famous for drum'n'bass and bad acting.
But it does seem the trend is on the rise. Nerdish hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri predicted as much in his intro to Nelly's 2005 hit Grillz, announcing: "We're about to start an epidemic with this one." Nelly seemed to have predicted the backlash by giving the most hallowed rock'n'roll justification for the style: "My grandmamma hate it, but my li'l mama love it."
And Flavor Flav - whose hip-hop career has now given way to an afterlife as a reality TV show star, after a formative barney with Give Us A Clue star Lionel Blair on Channel Five's The Farm - has also returned to the fray.
Last month, he marked the climax of the US reality series Flavor of Love - in which a bevy of women competed for his eccentric charms - by presenting the winner, Hoopz, with a commemorative grill set.
Online grill store Gold Teeth USA claims its sales have gone up 30% since Grillz was released. The shop sells everything from plain $35 single teeth caps to the $1,860 #497, with 25 diamonds and 10ct white gold caps on eight upper teeth.
But does this really all threaten a meltdown in hip-hop dental hygiene? Is the future going to see rappers spitting rotten teeth along with their rhymes?
There will always be people who don't look after their teeth, but until some evidence is published suggesting that grills make the problem worse it seems unfair to scapegoat them.
Judging by some of the less alarmist reports, most wearers and sellers are well aware of the need to do mundane things like flossing and brushing.
There are even grassroots hip-hop clothing sites offering exemplary advice on grillcare: "Make sure to brush your teeth and the gold bling after every time you eat. Use mouthwash and floss all the time too ... If you are about to sleep, soak your gold bling in a mouthwash solution to sanitize it."
Such panics generally die down as the relevant bodily adornment assimilates itself into the mainstream. Now that even David Cameron's wife flashes a tattoo on her ankle, who would dream of condemning them as a threat to public health?
A similar high-profile political breakthrough for dental bling cannot be far away. Given Gordon Brown's seeming conversion to cosmetic dentistry and his contentious observance of the golden rule, surely a set of 24ct fronts would be the logical next step.
