This file includes teeth, braces, dentists and tooth care, loose and missing teeth, tooth fairy, lips, mouth, and tongue.
You woke up with
A sleepy smile
That crept
Across your face.
Then I saw
A little tooth
Had finally
Found its place.
(from an older siblings perspective)
(Charles and Mary Lamb)
Though the house what busy joy,
Just because the infant boy
Has a tiny tooth to show!
I have got a double row,
All as white and all as small;
Yet no one cares for mine at all.
He can say but half a word,
Yet that single sound's preferred
To all the words that I can say
In the longest summer day.
He cannot walk, yet if he put
With mimic motion out his foot,
As if he thought he were advancing,
It's prized more than my best dancing.
Off to the dentist
I nervously go
Wondering what
My x-rays will show
The nurse calls my name
And I follow her in
She smiles at me
With a big toothy grin
I climb in the chair
Open my mouth up wide
Hoping and praying
No cavities hide
The dentist looks in
And says, "It's easy to see,
You've done so well brushing
You're cavity free."
(Bruce Lansky)
Ath I wath biking
down the thtweet,
I hit a bump
and lotht my theat.
I cwathed my bike
into a twee,
I thcwathed my fathe,
Oh, woe ith me.
My bike ith wecked,
I've no excuthe.
And wortht of all,
My tooth ith looth.
(Crystal Bowman)
My tooth came loose
the other day.
It happened while I was at play.
I wiggled it
With all my might,
Back and forth,
Left and right.
Then all of a sudden,
Out it came.
A little blood,
A little pain.
And now I have a little hole,
It's where my tongue
Just seems to go.
(Kenn Nesbitt)
I'm having trouble thpeaking,
thinthe I lotht my middle tooth.
Jutht yethterday my tooth wath fine --
today it wiggled loothe.
At firtht I thought it thilly,
when my tooth fell out today,
But no one theems to underthtand
a thingle word I thay.
I athked my mom to clothe the door,
she thaid "That would be rude.
The door does not like wearing clothes;
it's happy in the nude."
I told her that I thought I thaw
a mouthe inthide our plathe.
She thaid "The only mouth I see
is right there on your face."
I wonder if you underthtand
the thircumthtanthe I'm in.
I told her I wath feeling thick.
She thaid "You're looking thin."
At latht she thaw how made I wath,
And thought I might thtop breathing.
She laught and thaid she didn't mean it--
She wath only teething.
My tooth fell out, and left a space
So big my tongue could touch my face
And every time I smile, I show
A space where something used to grow
I miss my tooth as you can guess
But then, I have to brush one less!
(Shoshanah Aborn)
The maloccluded human race
Pays tribute to the wondrous brace.
Just a few short years of debt'll
Trap you teeth in wires of metal.
So what if we must sacrifice
Everything in life that's nice?
Eating sliced apples
and mushy pears,
Corn off the cob-really, who cares?
With braces on, we must think twice
Before we suck a cube of ice.
Pencils to gnaw and bread with crust
Are pushed aside to gather dust.
The fate of our teeth is in our hands,
And too much pressure breaks the bands.
We grit our teeth, suppress our screams,
And chew on caramels in our dreams.
The nicknames' origins, we feel,
Come not from a mouth bound in steel.
'Tinsel Teeth' is long since stale,
And 'metal Mouth' is at its tail
But those who play the insult game
Behave as though they'd coined the name.
We know they'll stop in a short while,
So we just smile a metal smile
And look for wires on those we hate
that we may retaliate.
Brace wearers are a patient lot.
We must be, considering what
We go through-sore gums wax-padded,
Oatmeal when tight wires are added,
And other such indignities
That go along wearing these.
But we just hold our heads up high;
On orthodontists' chairs we lie,
For they're the ones who control the rate
At which our crooked teeth turn straight.
In mirror dreamily we gaze,
And eagerly we count the days
Till we'll display our brand-new bite
With teeth now back to gleaming white.
Wiggle it, pull it, wrap it up tight...
Put it under the pillow, there'll be money there tonight!
When the Tooth Fairy heard you lost a tooth,
do you know what she did?
She made a map to visit you
'cause you're a special kid.
First she got your home address
and checked her fairy map,
Then she flew to your place
where she saw your brand new "gap."
Of course, she took your worn-out-tooth
just like she's always done,
But she's left you something nice instead
to help you have some fun!
(alternate poem for a time when the tooth fairy got busy)
When the Tooth Fairy heard you lost a tooth,
do you know what she did?
She made a map to visit you
'cause you're a special kid.
First she got your home address
and checked her fairy map,
Then she flew toward your house
but had to stop to take a nap.
She overslept, but will come tonight instead
just like she's always done,
And she will leave you something very special
to help you have some fun!
Carefully placed under a pillow of white
Lay one little tooth as she turned out the light;
Her eyes closed in slumber, a smile on her face,
Covered up to her chin with a quilt momma made.
Quietly hovering above her sweet head,
A room full of fairies looked down on her bed,
Little gold bags were carried by some,
While others had wands that glowed like the sun.
Each one had a job to fulfill in the night,
Some brought gold coins and others brought light;
Together they worked as they flitted about,
Replacing the tooth with some coins to be found.
Their job was complete as she let out a sigh,
They floated to the ceiling way up high,
Out of the window and into the night,
The tooth fairies flew leaving behind such delight.
She came last night
and vanished away . . .
With the tooth I pulled out yesterday.
If I could follow,
I bet I'd spy . . .
A mountain of teeth
that would touch the sky!
Sorry, but due to the massive quantity of children losing teeth, we have to resort to a form letter. Please forgive.
Dear ____________:
Thank you for leaving one [1] tooth under your pillow last night.
While we make every attempt to leave a monetary reward in the case of lost or stolen children's teeth, we were unable to process your request for the following reason(s) indicated below:
( ) the tooth could not be found
( ) it was not a human tooth
( ) we do not think that pieces of chicken bone are very funny
( ) we were unable to approach the tooth due to excessive odor
( ) the tooth has previously been redeemed for cash
( ) the tooth did not originally belong to you
( ) the tooth fairy does not process fingernails
( ) your request has been forwarded to the Nerve Ending Fairy for appropriate action
( ) you were overheard to state that you do not believe in the Tooth Fairy
( ) you are age 12 or older at the time your request was received
( ) the tooth is still in your mouth
( ) the tooth was guarded by a vicious fairy-eating dog at the time of our visit
( ) no night light was on at the time of our visit
( ) the snacks provided for the Tooth Fairy were not satisfactory, or were missing
( ) we discovered evidence of unsafe tooth extraction as follows: [ ] string, [ ] pliers, [ ] chisel, [ ] no dental care, [ ] Other:_____________
Thank you for your request, and we look forward to serving you in the future.
Sincerely,
The Tooth Fairy
There's a book called The Real Tooth Fairy. The plot of the story is that two different children lose teeth and wait up to see the Tooth Fairy. They see their parents. The little girl asks her Mommy about this and Mommy says the Tooth Fairy always looks like someone you love. A long time ago, a child woke up and was scared to see the Tooth Fairy in her room. The Tooth Fairy never wanted that to happen again so she changes her appearance each time. Great story in case you get caught in the act. We wrap teeth in a special hankie. That way they are ready for the Tooth Fairy to put in her pocket.
We got really tired of hearing how MUCH other kids got for their teeth (can you believe $10? Can you believe $10 AND toys?) . . . Sure, it's a rite of passage, but I just didn't see the point. So, we have a 'sliding scale' . . . the first tooth to fall out was 25 cents. The next was 30 cents, and the one after that was 35 cents, and so on. The kids liked the system, and were quick to mention that "this must be a 45 cent tooth" . . . which was lucky, because I wasn't always sure ;o)
Don't put the tooth under the pillow . . . too hard to find in the dark. Suggest dropping it in a glass of water left on the windowsill (fairies fly in and out of windows, right?)
Oh, yes . . . teeth with fillings don't get any monetary reward, because they can't be given by the fairy to any new babies . . . but a tooth with a filling MIGHT get an extra special glittery toothbrush left behind, instead!