What are treated diamonds?

There's nothing wrong with treated diamonds, just don't be duped by a jeweler trying to sell you treated diamonds as natural diamonds - because treated or 'enhanced' diamonds should be lower in price than natural diamonds of the same grade. There are two main reasons to treat diamonds. One is to get out the impurities - disguise cracks, fissures, cloudy spots etc., and the other is to give the diamond a serious color boost, usually turning a low color grade yellowish or brownish diamond and into a vivid blue diamond, for example. There are a few different technologies for color enhancing diamonds, and some are better than others. The worst is color coating: a layer of some substance is applied to the diamond's exterior, to mask its yellowish tint and make it appear clearer. This isn't a permanent treatment and is usually aimed to deceive the buyer. Don't buy a color coated diamond! Color enhancement by irradiation grants yellowish diamonds a vivid color, and is a more acceptable form of diamond color treatment, as long as your jeweler lets you know that it's not a totally natural diamond. It should also be noted on the diamond certificate, so make sure to check. HPHT (high pressure high temperature treatment) is used to either increase the clarity of yellowish diamonds or to make them vividly colored, and is completely permanent. Unlike irradiation, HPHT treatment is harder to detect in diamonds, so it is a little more controversial. Diamonds can also be laser drilled to get rid of inclusions or blemishes (internal or surface flaws), or to fill in cracks with a clear substance – this is long-term but not entirely permanent. Whether or not you want to buy an enhanced diamond is entirely up to you. I wouldn't recommend buying a diamond with a short-term enhancement though, because it will lose its luster eventually. Lots of people buy color enhanced diamonds and they are certainly gorgeous, but diamond elitists might turn their nose up at them.

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All diamonds are cut and polished, but the term 'treated diamonds' refers to diamonds that undergo additional chemical treatments, performed intentionally in order to increase their value. Though a cut of a diamond cannot be modified by such treatments, clarity and color can be, as certain treatments temporally conceal diamonds' inclusions or enhance diamonds' colors.

Generally speaking, there is no problem treating diamonds with such procedures. Problems occur when dealers and manufacturers don't reveal the fact that a diamond was treated and pretend that the visible attributes of a diamond are its natural properties. Customers hence can be fooled into spending a higher price, and  be disappointed later on due to the fact that the diamond treatment effect was temporal, leaving them with a poor color or clarity diamond. An unpleasant experience indeed!

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