A tooth fairy gave me some teeth - what do I do with them?
June 27, 2012 6:52 PM   Subscribe

So, what DOES the 'tooth fairy' do with Baby Teeth?

Any small children, stop reading now!

No, I'm not asking for which lie to tell to my nephew - "Tooth fairies build creepy castles with them!", but what to actually do with the baby teeth, once the 'tooth fairy' has collected them.

Seriously, I'm a grown-up, and it seems a bit of a letdown to the whole mythos of childhood to just throw them out, keep them in a box, or bury them.

What is something really cool we could do with his babyteeth? Possibly something I could present to him when he is older?
It's ok if it is a teeny bit creepy, he already knows he has an awesome, weird Aunty. Anecdotes appreciated.

Currently, we have one!
Presumably we should have a full set of clean baby teeth within the next couple of years.


[It was really hard figuring out the category - Art? Health? Human Relations]
posted by Elysum to Media & Arts (26 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Have them gold-plated (gold dipped) and make a bracelet out of them?
posted by xingcat at 6:57 PM on June 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Hold on to them until he's a surly teenager, and then start randomly sending them to him. Wrapped in a variety of strange forms of packaging. Not for any particular occasion. Just, every so often, he gets some mail. And in it, somewhere, somehow, there is a wee tooth.

Ideally unsigned, with no return address.

When he graduates from high school, confess.
posted by Sara C. at 7:03 PM on June 27, 2012 [46 favorites]


Mine sure got given back to me in a jar: "here, you insisted on keeping the damn things!" It might have been neat to have something a little craftier done with them, but most of them split over time, which you might want to take into consideration. Gold-plating or some other kind of coating might not be a bad idea.
posted by little cow make small moo at 7:03 PM on June 27, 2012


My mother-in-law sent us my husband's baby teeth after we got married. I don't recommend this plan.

My husband's taking over for the tooth fairy in our house (3 so far!), but I think so far they're just in a drawer.
posted by leahwrenn at 7:06 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


Mod note: Hello! Not asking for lies! They are indistinguishable from jokes! Be cool! Thanks!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:08 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Someone I know had his wisdom teeth turned into cuff links. I imagine having a tie clip of baby teeth to go along with those cuff links would really complete the ensemble.
posted by punchtothehead at 7:16 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


My mother kept them in her jewelry box. It was incredibly sweet, when I was old enough, to go through her box of treasures and discover them there, close to her other treasures.

Of course, I stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy pretty early, so this may not work for other families.
posted by muddgirl at 7:24 PM on June 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Victorians did some pretty cool things with teeth (and other human debris). Albert started it. And went all the way with it. And these days, somebody is always finding some creative (or gross) way to make things with things.


Sure, there's lots you can do. And you probably should do something cool with them, because as I've said before, otherwise they just become something someone else has to deal with down the road.

But quite honestly, for my own kid, I've kept the first one in a little tin for curiosity's sake - and pitched the rest. She likes to peek at it sometimes, and it doesn't take up much real estate, so I don't mind. We're already burdened with so much stuff that I don't need more things to imbue with sentimentality for either me or her to have to deal with down the road - but if you can do something fun, great.
posted by peagood at 7:29 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


Embed them in some kind of game? Upper teeth vs lower teeth checkers? Use them for houses in Monopoly? Use them to represent one of the resources in Agricola?
posted by Garm at 7:30 PM on June 27, 2012


My families tooth fairy (dad) kept all four of ours in a nice wooden caliper box along with a bunch of other random junk like steel fountain pen nibs.

I'm not sure what my daughters tooth fairy (my wife) is doing with them.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:30 PM on June 27, 2012


In a box with locks of hair and other keepsakes along side the scrapbooks. That's where my parents kept them.
posted by koucha at 7:41 PM on June 27, 2012


The tooth fairy drops lost teeth in a special little container (each kid seems to have made one along the way for Mother's Day and such) that sits inside our bedside table.

So, the kids can check on their teeth in a special place and the TF has done her job.
posted by mamabear at 7:54 PM on June 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Save them until you figure out if you want to do anything with them. ;)
posted by rhizome at 7:58 PM on June 27, 2012


Previously
posted by latkes at 7:58 PM on June 27, 2012


When my kids got to high school, I started putting them back under their pillows with a note thanking them for letting me borrow them. Now they have them in their drawers with nothing to do with them.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:16 PM on June 27, 2012 [13 favorites]


Me being the Tooth Fairy, of course.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:02 PM on June 27, 2012


I think my parents chucked them.
My child wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy asking to keep them. The Tooth Fairy complied. Not sure why she still left money, but perhaps viewing them was enough.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 11:00 PM on June 27, 2012


I just bin them - A) teeth are pretty gross and B) you don't want them being found and then to have to deal with the inevitable questions.

But what does the tooth fairy do with them? I learnt this from a commenter here - She uses them in spray paint cans, and if you ever shake a can, you'll hear that tooth inside... (I have boys)
posted by guy72277 at 2:24 AM on June 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm 40. My mom passed away a year and a half ago. I found a little envelope with all my baby teeth in it in with her jewelry when cleaning out her things. I loved that she kept them all these years.
posted by cecic at 6:28 AM on June 28, 2012 [3 favorites]


From the very first tooth, my son asked if he could keep them. And so he has, along with the notes he leaves for the fairy and the letters the fairy (ours is named Fred) writes back--on tooth fairy letterhead.
posted by underthehat at 6:33 AM on June 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


My mother kept them in our baby box. We each had one where she would put things like our christening gowns, first shoes, baby teeth a lock of hair from our first hair cuts, cards and things made at kindy that sort of thing. She just has 2 nice cardboard boxes storages on the top shelf of her wardrobe so we couldn't reach them until we were older, labelled for each of us and put the things she wanted to keep in there. I think she only kept one tooth each and threw out the rest.
posted by wwax at 6:53 AM on June 28, 2012


Best answer: Build (or decorate) a small creepy castle out of them.

Mount it on a base and engrave relevant details on a name plate. Display in the china cabinet.
posted by mazola at 7:08 AM on June 28, 2012


Best answer: This craftsperson from reddit makes plush toys with artificial teeth. I don't see why real human teeth would be any less effective, or less creepy, for that matter.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:43 AM on June 28, 2012


I had a fairly hideous removal of a wisdom tooth, which I was given after the procedure. I took it hope wrapped in tissue, and stuck it in the sort of toy container you get out of a gumball machine.

Years later, I still come across that tooth when tidying, and it's perfectly fine. Perhaps the fact that it's exposed to light and air mean that it's stayed in better condition. If you want to preserve them, maybe you could do something similar.
posted by The River Ivel at 4:51 PM on June 28, 2012


A tradition in some parts of Britain is to burn them; in some areas you must add a pinch of salt before doing so. This probably originated in a time when homes were still heated by fires, and before the tooth fairy story had spread round the world.

Alternatively, you could wait till your nephew is old enough to study chemistry, then do the dissolving-teeth-in-acidic-household-substances thing.
posted by Perodicticus potto at 10:59 PM on June 28, 2012


Best answer: 13 Works of Art Made with Teeth
posted by kreestar at 11:57 PM on July 8, 2012


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