Unfortunately the next time we lose teeth will either be in a bar brawl or a nursing home, but for all the kids out there still in the process of losing their pearly whites, this one is for you: Today is National Tooth Fairy Day, a national holiday, albeit an unofficial one, that takes place on August 22 and February 28 each and every year.
Gallery of Bad Teeth: You Know You Want to Look
Why celebrate the Tooth Fairy? Who knows! But, hey, a magical fairy who comes to your house at night and takes your gross teeth that just fell out of your head and leaves you money and goodies behind? Yeah, we think she deserves a day.
How did the Tooth Fairy come to be? Well, losing your teeth and being a kid isn’t always fun. Actually, it’s almost never fun, especially when there’s blood involved. But, to make the experience a little less traumatic, the Tooth Fairy comes along. And, not only does she take that little nasty thing behind, but she leaves you cash.
Now, by the time you are 12 or 13, most likely all of your baby teeth have fallen out to make way for new, adult permanent ones. The whole process starts at around six years of age. Teeth generally begin to come in at around six or seven months old and start falling out as new ones begin to push them out at around six years old. By the age of two, a child should have about 20 teeth.
In other semi-related news, dreams about your teeth falling out of your head are pretty common around the world, for adults. What exactly those dreams mean is still up for debate, but stress and anxiety are both believed to be triggers.
And in more semi-related news, George Washington, long rumored to have had teeth made of wood, actually had false teeth made out of hippopotamus teeth, ivory and other human teeth.
And, if you think losing one set of teeth is traumatic, sharks develop a minimum of 40 sets of teeth in their lifetimes. And, we doubt the Tooth Fairy is getting close enough to those guys to leave them any presents.
So, happy National Tooth Fairy Day!
And don’t forget to brush.
