Whilst there are many facts, lots of information and tons of advice that dentists will relay to their patients, one aspect about teeth that they most certainly did not study when they were looking to become a dentist is the tooth fairy. Hopefully, you remember being told as a child by your parents that the tooth fairy comes in the night to take away a lost tooth and in return, they will leave a gift or money, but only if the tooth has been looked after.

Depending on your level of cynicism, you will see the tooth fairy story as either a fun way to encourage children to look after their teeth, a strange incentive for children to lose teeth, or a ploy by parents to get their children to go to bed early when one of their teeth out. We prefer to look for the positives and opt for the first one.

It might surprise you to learn that the origins of the tooth fairy and how they operate differ worldwide. Further, in some countries, if you mention the tooth fairy to children, you would see blank expressions. That is because not every country ‘has’ a tooth fairy, and something else exists.

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