“She lives at the North Pole, right next to Santa.” That was just the beginning of the story a junior kindergartener shared with me during this past Give Kids A Smile® Day, when I asked her class what they knew about the tooth fairy.
“She uses the teeth to make necklaces and bracelets,” the girl went on to say with such confidence that you would have thought she saw the tooth fairy herself.
One of the sections in “The Book” (which I have previously referred to) is a collection of thoughts and stories about the tooth fairy which children have shared with me over my career. While most of the time the kids don’t know where the tooth fairy lives or what she does with the teeth she collects, I have heard some fantastic stories.
One girl had the entire process sorted out: The tooth fairy collects the teeth and then converts them to gold (ala’ Rumpelstiltskin). She then takes the gold to a bank and exchanges it for the cash she puts under the pillows.
I have more stories, but I would imagine that you do, too.
Use the comments section below to share a story or two that you have heard from your patients about the nature of the tooth fairy.
Love the story! I had a little girl at a school rotation ask me about the tooth fairy once. She then proceeded to tell me that I must be really rich because dentists take teeth out all the time! She even asked if the tooth fairy and I had a special tooth exchange business. It was adorable!
Save those stories! There will be many more like that over the course of your career, and they are easily forgotten if you don’t write them down.