Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- There is nothing wrong for men and women to have golden, silvery and platinum teeth as long as necessity dictates doing so.
- As for other metals such as platinum etc., there is no clear evidence that prohibits using them.
In this regard, Al-Azhar House of Fatwa, issues:
There is nothing wrong, as far as Islam is concerned, for men and women to have golden, silvery and platinum teeth as long as necessity dictates doing so.
It is reported that the nose of Arfajah Ibn Sad Al-Kinani (one of the Prophet’s Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all) was seriously injured during one of the battles. Arfajah replaced the injured part of his nose with a silvery one. After this silvery nose got destroyed by the passage of time, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to replace it with another golden one.
It is also reported that many Muslim scholars such as Musa Ibn Talhah, Abu Rafi, Thabit At-Tibbani, Ismail Ibn Yasid, and Al-Mughirah Ibn Abdallah used to have golden teeth.
Also, Imam Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Imam Az-Zuhri, Imam An-Nakhi, and the Hanafi Imams see nothing wrong in having golden teeth as long as necessity dictates doing so.
Ibn Qudamah reported that the followers of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal saw nothing wrong in having golden and silver teeth but without showing excessiveness or extravagance.
Hence, it is clear that there is nothing wrong in filling and covering the teeth using gold or silver.
However, according to the first opinion the use of golden and silvery teeth should be reduced to the norm of necessity, while the second opinion (the followers of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal) stated that it is permitted in all times as long as there is no intention to show excessiveness or extravagance.
As for other metals such as platinum etc., there is no clear evidence that prohibits using them.
Thus, your wife is permitted to have a golden tooth as long as the above guidelines cited by the two scholarly opinions are applied.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.