STIM Oral Care | 20 Sep, 2022
The Tooth Fairy... Traditions From Around the World!
The tooth fairy is a wicked and wise way to dispose of your child’s teeth - a tooth falls out and you wake up richer (It doesn’t work with your dentures, Granny! Nice try). The best part is, even though it’s an excruciating experience, you can actually see the excitement in your child (Yippee! A dime for a tooth). Every country has its traditions and making this first experience memorable for your kid is what good parents do.
Here’s what the tooth fairy does, around the world:
- America, UK (all the English-speaking countries):
Well, to be honest, the tooth fairy works as a bank in these countries. You deposit your broken tooth and you get a dollar out of it (unless your tooth fairy has only 5 bucks in her pocket). The reason is quite simple to un-traumatize the loss of baby teeth, kids are paid off for their toofers (so, losing teeth really isn’t so bad after all).
- Asia (highest in the world’s population):
One thing is certain, Asians know how to make useless stuff productive, or else who make bleeding, smelly, and hardened white stuff into a wish. In the Philippines, kids bury their teeth in the ground after making a wish and after a year if they could find it again, the kid gets to make another wish (can you believe it! Hygiene, kid, hygiene). In Pakistan, kids wrap up their fallen tooth in a cotton ball and throw it into the river at sunset for good luck.
- From the land of Salsa and other Hispanic cultures:
Raton Perez aka Perez Mouse collects Hispanic teeth and leaves behind gifts not necessarily money for the kids. He even has a museum solely dedicated to him, in Madrid (Way to go, mouse).
- The French Connection:
Even the French have their version of the tooth-collecting mouse “La Bonne Petite Souris”. Instead of leaving gifts, he would replace the tooth with either money or sweets (a pretty bad idea with the sweets, Petite Souris).
- In the Land of the Rising Sun (Japan):
In the hope of getting beautiful teeth kids who lose teeth from their lower jaw will throw their teeth onto their roof, while upper jaw teeth go on the floor or even under it. The idea is the new tooth will be pulled towards the old tooth (Eureka! Teeth have magnetic properties).
