Lost teeth
“Look at my teeth mommy, they’re wiggling”, cried Darling Angel in excitement.
That was at the end of last year. We were busy preparing to travel for Christmas and …well, we were just busy. “Okay”, I responded while my mind was elsewhere. So it wasn’t until after the new year that I paid any attention to the wiggling teeth. The two bottom teeth in front were wiggling and right behind them were two permanent teeth.
A trip to a dentist was immediately scheduled. We were overdue for a visit anyway and I have been planning to find a dentist (since we have moved twice in the past 18 months). I wondered if the milk teeth needed to be extracted to give the permanent ones space to grow. But my worries were calmed. The dentist assured us that the two teeth would come loose on their own. And the new misaligned teeth would eventually become aligned as the tongue naturally pushes them into their proper alignment. If they had been upper teeth, we may have had to have an extraction because no tongue up there may equal permanent misalignment.
Relieved, I could now focus my attention on what to do with the teeth when they do come loose…establish some traditions. I had that at the back of my mind when I stumbled upon a book at the library, “Throw your tooth on the roof: Tooth traditions from around the world”, by Selby B. Beeler and G. Brian Karas. I wasn’t looking for a book about tooth traditions but I was sure happy to find one. It brought back memories of me throwing my tooth on the roof. I recall my mom trying to remember the process and then instructing me on what to do. We only did it on one ocassion. On other ocassions, I put my tooth under my pillow hoping my parents (impersonating the tooth fairy) would replace the tooth with money. They never did.
I flipped through the pages of the book with my daughter, marvelling at the differences and similarities between tooth traditions from various parts of the world. Perhaps a study can be done (if one doesn’t exist already) on how the traditions dispersed through the world because the similarities are striking. Based on this book, there are three common categories of tooth traditions:
- Throw your tooth away in exchange for a new tooth. In many cases, an animal (rat, sparrow, squirrel) is expected to eat the tooth and bring the owner a new tooth. In most of the cases where an animal is expected to eat the tooth, it is thrown on the roof. In parts of North Africa and the Middle East, the tooth is thrown towards the sun. Some of the countries where teeth are thrown on roofs include Nigeria, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Greece, Georgia, India, Indonesia and Korea.
- Exchange your tooth for a gift. The tooth is placed where someone/something replaces it with money or a gift. The exchange agent could be the tooth fairy (North America, Denmark, New Zealand), a rat (El Salvador, South Africa, France). In Mali, the tooth is thrown in a chicken coop in exchang for a big fat hen.
- Make your tooth into an ornament - In Costa Rica and Chile, the tooth is set in silver or gold and made into an earring or necklace.
- Hide your tooth. In Malaysia the tooth is returned to the earth. In Turkey, the tooth is buried where the owner hopes to go. For example, it is buried in the garden of a hospital if the owner hopes to become a doctor.
“When your teeth come out, we’re going to throw them on the roof”, I announced to Darling Angel. “But mommy?!”, she looked bewildered. She didn’t think it was a good idea. She was right. There was a mountain of snow outside at the time and I didn’t feel up to traipsing in the snow trying to aim for the roof.
“We’ll put them under your pillow for the tooth fairy”, I conceded.
Now, all we had to do was wait for the teeth to come out. And they did, while she was at school. One came out, the other followed two days later. Each one came home in a little ziplock bag. Both times she handed me the bag in excitement. Both times, she came demanding for her tooth to show daddy as soon as she heard his car pull into the garage. Both times, she did not return the tooth to me. Both times, she misplaced the tooth after showing it to daddy.
Now we have two lost teeth. Perhaps sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, or hiding in a crevice somewhere to reappear in a few years. Whereever they may be, we will have to wait for the next loose tooth to practice some tooth tradition. Perhaps the next loose tooth would happen in summer and we would be happy to congregate outside to witness the tooth’s projectile on its journey to the roof.
