tooth fairy

For other uses, see Tooth Fairy (disambiguation).

The Tooth Fairy is a mythical character depicted as a fairy that gives a child money or gifts in exchange for a baby tooth that has fallen out. Children typically place the tooth under their pillow at night while they sleep. The fairy is said to take the tooth from under the pillow and replace it with money.

Origins

In early Europe, it was a tradition to bury baby teeth that fell out.^[1] Some believe that the Tooth Fairy evolved from the tooth mouse depicted in an 18th century French language fairy tale. In "La Bonne Petite Souris," a mouse changes into a fairy to help a good queen defeat an evil king by hiding under his pillow to torture him and knocking out all his teeth.

This combination of ancient international traditions has evolved into one that is distinct Anglo-Saxon and Latin American cultures among others.

Tooth tradition is present in several western cultures under different names. For example in Spanish-speaking countries, this character is called Ratoncito Pérez, a little mouse with a common surname, or just "ratón de los dientes" (Tooth Mouse). The "Ratoncito Pérez" character was created around 1894 by the priest Luis Coloma (1851–1915), a member of the Real Academia Española since 1908. The Crown asked Coloma to write a tale for the eight-year old Alfonso XIII, as one of his teeth had fallen out. A Ratón Pérez appeared in the tale of the Vain Little Mouse. The Ratoncito Pérez was used by Colgate marketing in Venezuela^[2] and Spain^{[citation needed]}.

In Italy also the Tooth Fairy (Fatina) is often substituted by a small mouse (topino). In France, this character is called La Petite Souris (« The Little Mouse »). From parts of Lowland Scotland, comes a tradition similar to the fairy mouse: a white fairy rat which purchases the teeth with coins.

In some Asian countries, such as India, Korea and Vietnam, when a child loses a tooth the usual custom is that he or she should throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing this, the child shouts a request for the tooth to be replaced with the tooth of a mouse. This tradition is based on the fact that the teeth of mice go on growing for their whole life, a characteristic of all rodents. In Japan, a different variation calls for lost upper teeth to be thrown straight down to the ground and lower teeth straight up into the air; the idea is that incoming teeth will grow in straight.

In parts of India, young children offer their discarded baby tooth to the sun, sometimes wrapped in a tiny rag of cotton turf.

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. The Tooth Fairy, a three-act playlet for children by Esther Watkins Arnold, was published in 1927. On May 28, 1938, MGM released The Little Rascals short entitled, The Awful Tooth, in which the gang agreed to pull their teeth out to make money from the tooth fairy.^[3] A reference in American literature appears in the 1949 book, "The Tooth Fairy" by Lee Rothgow. Dr. Wells created a Tooth Fairy Museum in 1993 in her Deerfield, Illinois museum. In a March 1961 Peanuts strip, new character Frieda asks if the prices are set by the American Dental Society. The Tooth Fairy has appeared in several children's books, an adult book, and films, and the eponymous radio series.

A somewhat similar practice is found in Guatemala where Worry dolls are told a worry by children and placed under their pillow. During the night the doll is believed to worry so that the child can sleep, and sometimes to actually address or resolve the worry. As with the tooth fairy, parents may remove the doll at night to reinforce the child's belief in the myth.

Literature

A darker text is Graham Joyce's award-winning, The Tooth Fairy, in which the fairy is a huge hoax created to make losing teeth not seem so bad.

In the Terry Pratchett book, Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy has a complex operation, involving a group of human "Tooth Fairies" who collect the teeth, delivery men, guards and a castle that resembles a child's painting. The money given in payment for the teeth is generated through property rentals in the "real" world. The Tooth Fairy itself was the very first bogeyman, who became a children's myth as adults stopped believing in the power of the dark.

In film and television

Numerous films have been made on this theme, mostly horror. One example is Darkness Falls, a film by Jonathan Liebesman, in which an evil-spirit of a woman killed long ago assumes the form of the 'Tooth Fairy', and starts haunting. Another example is The Tooth Fairy, directed by Chuck Bowman. In this film, a murderous woman kills children for their teeth.

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, and the to-be-released Tooth Fairy, starring The Rock.

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 the Nickelodeon Cartoon series The Fairly Oddparents, the Tooth Fairy is married to Jorgen Von Strangle.

In the South Park episode The Tooth Fairy Tats the boys attempt to collect teeth in order to make money from 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, to get to the bones.

In The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, the Tooth Fairy is part of the Council of Legendary Figures, along with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Cupid, Mother Nature, Father Time and the Sandman.

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

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.

References

External links

• Works about Tooth Fairy in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Straight Dope Staff Report: What's the origin of the tooth fairy?
• "The Hairy Tooth Fairy" (Feature film)
• "The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2" (Feature film)
• "The Tooth Fairy: Cute or Creepy?" (Article)
• The Excruciating History of Dentistry, James Wynbrandt, St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0312263198
• The History of the Tooth Fairy
• "The Awful Tooth" episode commentary