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It has been suggested that Traditions and customs regarding deciduous teeth be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2011.

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The tooth fairy is a legendary fairy who gives a child money or a gift in exchange for a baby tooth (also known as a deciduous or milk tooth) that has fallen out. Children typically place the tooth under their pillow at night. The fairy is said to take the tooth from under the pillow and replace it with money once they have fallen asleep. In France, the tooth fairy does not work on the first day of every month.

Origins

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In early Europe, it was a tradition to bury baby teeth that fell out. The tradition is still very much alive and well in Ireland and Great Britain, where it is common for young children to believe in the Tooth Fairy. When a child's sixth tooth falls out, it is customary for the tooth fairy to slip a gift or money under the child's pillow, but to leave the tooth as a reward for the child growing strong. Some people leave trails of so called "fairy dust" on the floor of the child's room.

There was also (in northern Europe) the tradition of the payment of a 'toothfe' or tooth fee. This payment was paid when a child cut their first tooth. This tradition is recorded in writings as early as the Eddas (poetic Edda and Prose Edda) which were the earliest written record of Norse and Northern European mythologies and traditions.

Rosemary Wells, a former professor at the Northwestern University Dental School, found evidence that supports the origin of different tooth fairies in the United States around 1900. Folklorist Tad Tuleja suggests postwar affluence, a child-directed family culture, and media turned the myth into a custom.

Tooth fairy gift amounts

The custom of leaving monetary gifts after teeth are lost varies grossly in amount left and depends entirely on socioeconomic status of the parents. Recent surveys published in the American Dental Association's monthly publication, "Ortho" shows that the average value received by children for deciduous teeth is US$1.00/tooth, and ranges from US$0.25 to US$20.00. The largest gift was reported by a responder in Manhattan for a gift in the amount of US$1.2 million and included a sliding scale for each subsequent tooth lost. The ADA survey summary stated that the "per tooth" amount was found by surveying over 2 million children in the US during 2010 and includes a multiplier of 1.5x for each additional tooth in the event the child saves their teeth for future offerings under a pillow - presumably to encourage savings at a young age.

In film and television

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• Numerous films have been made on this theme, mostly horror.
  • One example is Darkness Falls in which an evil-spirit of a falsely-accused woman named Matilda Dixon (who was nicknamed Tooth Fairy) who killed long ago assumes the form of the 'Tooth Fairy' and starts haunting by killing anyone who sees her face.
  • Another example is The Tooth Fairy. In this film, a murderous woman kills children for their teeth.
  • The 2011 film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, while not specifically using the term "tooth fairy" does mention that the tooth-eating creatures inhabiting the basement of an old house are ancient "faeries and elves," and that they made a pact with the Pope in the middle ages to pay for children's lost teeth. In one scene, a child finds an old coin under her pillow in exchange for an old tooth.

• In the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (and in the film versions Manhunter and Red Dragon ), a serial killer is unofficially dubbed "the Tooth Fairy" by investigating police officers because of bites on his victims that indicate "pegged lateral incisors." To the killer's chagrin, this nick-name is leaked to the press.

• More comedic versions on the theme include the 1997 TV movie Toothless, in which Kirstie Alley plays a dentist who reluctantly becomes a tooth fairy.

• In 1991, Lacewood Productions produced a 24-minute children's animated short, entitled Tooth Fairy, Where Are You?, where an unofficial tooth fairy-in-training is discovered by a girl as her tooth is collected. The two became friends and are sad when they must part when the fairy becomes "official".

• In an episode of All in the Family, Edith relates the story of how Archie once called an effeminate dentist "the Tooth Fairy".

• In the Nickelodeon TV series The Fairly OddParents, the Tooth Fairy (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is married to Jorgen Von Strangle.

• In the South Park episode "The Tooth Fairy Tats 2000" the boys attempt to collect teeth in order to make money from the tooth fairy.

• In the Cleveland Show episode "It's the Great Pancake, Cleveland Brown", because Rallo eats too much candy, he loses a tooth and his mom tells him the story of the tooth fairy.

• In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, tooth fairies are depicted as small, ravenous creatures with a taste for calcium. They will eat humans alive, starting with the teeth(hence the name "Tooth Fairy"), to get to the bones.

• In The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, the Tooth Fairy (portrayed by Art LaFleur) is part of the Council of Legendary Figures, along with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Cupid, Mother Nature, Father Time and the Sandman. Unlike most depictions of the tooth fairy as a female fairy, this fairy is in fact male. The Tooth Fairy has also mentioned that he would like to be called "Captain Floss," "Plaque Man," and "Roy," with Santa suggesting "The Molinator."

• In the TV series Arthur, the Tooth Fairy uses all the teeth she collects to make a castle in which she lives.

• In the Adult Swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Meatwad, Master Shake and Frylock have their teeth stolen by the Creature from Plaque Lagoon while trying to become rich quick in a plot involving trying to rip-off the Tooth Fairy, in the episode Creature from Plaque Lagoon.

• In another Adult Swim cartoon, Metalocalypse, showcases part of a conversation regarding the tooth fairy between characters Nathan Explosion and Toki Wartooth. In the episode "Skwisklok", Toki accepts an endorsement deal for a candy company and is railing against Nathan for trying to calm him down before he pulls out one of his own cavity-ridden teeth nonchalantly and discards it. Toki's shrugs it off, claiming that teeth grow back, to which Nathan corrects him. Toki then goes on to say "Don't you remember being a little kids, when your teeths would fall out and grow back and you would get the old one under the pillow so the ancient Norse god Orthar the Tooths Collector, would come and give you a Pickles Nickel?" (Pickles Nickels were the endorsement deal made by Pickles in the episode, however the design is actually a Buffalo Nickel).

• The Tooth Fairy is also in the TV series American Dragon: Jake Long voiced by Edie McClurg.

• In the Zoobilee Zoo episode "When You Wish Upon a Tooth Fairy", Whazzat loses her first baby tooth, but the tooth fairy is unfortunately on vacation and doesn't come at night. In her stead, Bravo, Lookout and Van Go dress up as tooth fairies.

• In Tooth Fairy, Dwayne Johnson is a tough minor-league hockey player known for hitting opposing players so hard he knocks out their teeth. When he discourages some a child's dreams and fantasies, he is forced to serve two weeks as a real-life tooth fairy.

See also

• Deciduous teeth
• Hammaspeikko - Finnish tooth troll

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References

1. http://www.therealtoothfairies.com

Further reading

• Lainez, Rene Colato (2010). The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez. Illustrated by Tom Lintern. ISBN 978-1582462967.
• Narváez, Peter (1997) The Good People: New Fairylore Essays. (section V) University Press of Kentucky.
• Wynbrandt, James (1998). The Excruciating History of Dentistry. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312263198.
• Template:IMDb character

• Articles to be merged from June 2011
• Articles with trivia sections from October 2009
• Use dmy dates from November 2010
• Fairies
• Folklore
• Traditions