There are some people who find it rather appealing to open up their mouth and lace their teeth with gold or silver. On the street they refer to it as “grillz” or a “grill.” Not my cup of tea, but we’re not all perfect or sane. In any event, wearing a grill in a place like Haiti can draw the wrong attention from the wrong crowd. It’s not the local youths who have them as such things are not practiced or even affordable there. Those who have them are usually deportees, Haitians nationals who never became U.S citizens and were deported back to Haiti either because they were convicted of crimes on U.S soil worthy of deportation (which can be just about anything nowadays) or because they were here illegally.

Deportees are not too welcomed in Haiti especially the city slums of Port Au Prince, Haiti’s capital. While there are other things that can expose a deportee, nothing is more telling than a mouth full of silver or gold. Problem is, some grillz are permanent fixtures and you need money to remove it, something most deportees do not have upon return to Haiti. This coupled with the fact that many are going back to a country some barely know or never even grew up in, their only link to it being the place where they were born. One particular grill wearing deportee was sent back to Haiti simply for driving with a suspended license and signing a false name on the ticket. After 9 months in jail he was sent packing back to Haiti with his permanent grill in place. To avoid personal danger there, he has to keep his mouth shut - literally.
There have been reports of grill wearing deportees being kidnapped and having their grillz removed one tooth at a time with a pliers to retrieve the gold or silver lining the teeth. It has become so alarming that some Haitians awaiting deportation who happen to wear grillz are having them removed before being shipped back to Haiti to avoid instant recognition. Haiti, a country mired in poverty and lawlessness is definitely not a place to advertise gold and silver every time you open your mouth.