We have talked before about the tooth fairy and indeed, the various myths from around the world as they relate to teeth and the tooth fairy. What we haven’t discussed is what to do with a tooth when it falls out? Today we invite a more interactive conversation as the Brinkley Team asks you – what do you do with the teeth that your child’s tooth fairy has come for?
We’ve seen plenty of containers over the years. We all know you can buy keepsake containers for teeth that are made of pewter or plastic, embellished or embarrassing. We recently spoke with a patient who found one at the bottom of a drawer. It was (she described) a huge, pink, plastic fake tooth with a smiling face on it. Frankly, it frightened her because she described it as large enough to hold not just one but an entire mouth full of teeth! When she opened it, there was one tiny tooth rolling around the interior, in fact, it was only half a tooth. It reminded her of a frantic visit to our offices a few years back, when in an attempt to wiggle a tooth out on her own, one of her children came away with only the top half of the tooth and there was panic over what to do next. We reassured her that often these teeth fall out on their own and after just another month or so the rest of the tooth came out of its own accord! I asked her if that meant the tooth fairy had come twice for the child because if that happened frequently, visits from the tooth fairy could get pretty costly!
But we digress. Back to storage, we found there are baby tooth albums, baby tooth boxes, personalized and bedazzled containers made from silver and gold, and even a recent trend amongst some parents that involves having their children’s teeth memorialized permanently by making jewelry out of them! YES, I said jewelry. There seems to be an entire market now devoted to turning your child’s first tooth (or more, since you can have an entire charm bracelet made of teeth) into fashionable jewelry items like rings, necklaces and charms. When we discussed this trend around the Brinkley Dental office, as a team we agreed with this internet blogger who said: “Perhaps having our kids’ baby teeth turned into jewelry is no different than displaying their first footprints in plaster or ink and framing them to hang in their nurseries. Somehow turning the teeth into jewelry to then show off …. is a bit more macabre for me.” (1) We agree, and couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
If you are looking for another idea (but one that is no less “unusual”) consider having your baby’s teeth frozen and stored. There has been some interesting new research done around harvesting stem cells from the dental pulp of teeth. The premise is that these stem cells can be regenerated into several different kinds of cells including neurons, bone, cartilage and even cardiac cells which could potentially then be used to help cure disease. Kind of like storing cord blood but at a fraction of the cost and with the obvious benefit that you don’t have to have prearranged this service within moments of your child’s birth! What’s the catch? The tooth needs to be frozen and stored correctly within 48 hours or cells start to die. There are companies springing up around the internet willing to do this for parents but also, and more significantly, “Scientists have conducted many studies using dental pulp stem cells in animals, but the science with regard to humans is still nascent.” (2)
So there you have it folks. That’s the lowdown on tooth storage from the team at Brampton Brinkley Dental. We don’t judge – we just inform! If you are looking for more information on how to preserve your adult teeth, safely INSIDE your mouth contact us for an appointment today and as always ”don’t forget to be a BFF with your mouth and Brush that SMILE!”
(1)sheknows.com /(2)motherboard.vice.com /*also ..”tiphero.com”
