WEBVTT - What's the History of the Tooth Fairy?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.480
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.160
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here a quick content warning

0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.840
<v Speaker 1>parents and guardians of kids who are maybe just about

0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.240
<v Speaker 1>to start losing baby teeth. A heads up. This episode

0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.720
<v Speaker 1>talks frankly about the history of the tooth Fairy, so

0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.560
<v Speaker 1>choose your audience wisely. And that's the strangest content warning

0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.239
<v Speaker 1>I've ever given, so let's dive right in. We spoke

0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.600
<v Speaker 1>via email with Christina Kilgrove, and anthropologist in science writer

0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.800
<v Speaker 1>with a background in archaeology, so she's used to dealing

0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.000
<v Speaker 1>with teeth and bones, but even she wasn't prepared for

0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.720
<v Speaker 1>the site of her seven year old daughter extracting her

0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.360
<v Speaker 1>own upper right central incisor and an effort to cash

0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.320
<v Speaker 1>it in. Kilgrove said, I was initially inspired to track

0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:48.360
<v Speaker 1>down the source of the tooth Fairy legend when my

0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.120
<v Speaker 1>older daughter lost her first tooth. She knew the tooth

0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.960
<v Speaker 1>Fairy wasn't real, but wanted to know when and why

0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.040
<v Speaker 1>the story began. Even if you aren't familiar with the

0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.319
<v Speaker 1>tooth Fairies origin story, you've likely heard of her or

0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.720
<v Speaker 1>encountered a kid like Kilgrove's daughter who's perhaps a little

0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.800
<v Speaker 1>overly excited to earn some dough. The folklore dictates that

0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.080
<v Speaker 1>when a child loses a baby tooth, they should place

0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.080
<v Speaker 1>it under their pillow at night, and when they awake

0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.520
<v Speaker 1>the next morning, they'll find their lost tooth has been

0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.000
<v Speaker 1>replaced with a small amount of money, a courtesy of

0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:23.800
<v Speaker 1>a magical and seemingly enamel obsessed sprite. Unlike Santa Claus

0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.520
<v Speaker 1>and the Easter Bunny, the tooth Fairy has a somewhat

0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.839
<v Speaker 1>enigmatic history. Kilgrove said, I was surprised that the tooth

0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.040
<v Speaker 1>Fairy is a comparatively new legend. She started to take

0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.520
<v Speaker 1>off with the boomer generation getting paid for their teeth,

0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.840
<v Speaker 1>and was cemented in encyclopedias and the media with gen

0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:44.039
<v Speaker 1>x and While other childhood characters typically have roots in

0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.880
<v Speaker 1>religious traditions, Kilgrove says, quote the secular tooth fairy is

0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:53.440
<v Speaker 1>really a modern invention. So who is this mysterious mythical

0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.280
<v Speaker 1>creature and why is she so dead set on swapping

0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.920
<v Speaker 1>baby teeth for cash. We also spoke by email with

0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.640
<v Speaker 1>Dr Syle Colombo, d m d of the Little Royals

0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.600
<v Speaker 1>Dentistry for Kids in Jupiter, Florida. He said some have

0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:08.880
<v Speaker 1>suggested that the story of the tooth fairy dates back

0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.800
<v Speaker 1>to Norse traditions from the thirteenth century, when it became

0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.960
<v Speaker 1>a tradition for a tooth fee to be given to

0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.840
<v Speaker 1>a child when they lost their first baby tooth. The

0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:18.920
<v Speaker 1>more modern tooth fairy as we know it was first

0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.600
<v Speaker 1>referenced in an editorial from the Chicago Daily Tribune in

0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.040
<v Speaker 1>n eight, which at that time value the tooth fairies

0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.639
<v Speaker 1>contribution at five cents compared to an average approaching four

0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.400
<v Speaker 1>dollars a tooth today. So kill Grove pegs the popularity

0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.440
<v Speaker 1>of the tooth Fairy to the childhood of the Boomers,

0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.880
<v Speaker 1>and Colombo dates the character's birth back to the twelve hundreds.

0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.280
<v Speaker 1>But there's a third possibility. Writer and publisher Michael Hingston

0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.960
<v Speaker 1>explained in a piece for Salon that the legend really

0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.560
<v Speaker 1>took off in the nineteen seventies when a woman named

0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.560
<v Speaker 1>Rosemary Wells took it upon herself to thoroughly research and

0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:57.160
<v Speaker 1>report on the tooth fairies saga. Kilgrove said. Dr Wells

0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.400
<v Speaker 1>was a professor teaching scientific writing at Northwestern unif City's

0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.680
<v Speaker 1>dental School in the nineteen seventies when she realized there

0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.440
<v Speaker 1>was little information about the origin of the tooth fairy legend.

0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.840
<v Speaker 1>She worked on tracking down the origin and surveyed Americans

0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:13.040
<v Speaker 1>on their tooth fairy practices for twenty years before starting

0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.400
<v Speaker 1>a small museum in her home dedicated to the tooth fairy.

0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.040
<v Speaker 1>Kingston said, I love when people accidentally become world experts

0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.880
<v Speaker 1>on something, and Rosemary Wells is a great example of this.

0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.239
<v Speaker 1>She asked a simple question, followed her curiosity, and ended

0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.519
<v Speaker 1>up with a private museum in her home dedicated to

0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:31.520
<v Speaker 1>the tooth fairy. How do you not root for that?

0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.400
<v Speaker 1>As Hingston writes, the tooth fairy is a relatively recent creation,

0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.800
<v Speaker 1>but quote rituals surrounding tooth loss date back much further

0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.400
<v Speaker 1>than that. He points out that every single recorded human

0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.480
<v Speaker 1>culture has some sort of traditional practice centered around the

0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.840
<v Speaker 1>disposal of lost baby teeth, and researcher B. R. Town

0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.400
<v Speaker 1>End broke down the various rituals in an article in

0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.000
<v Speaker 1>the British Dental Journal in nineteen sixty three titled the

0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 1>Non Therapeutic Extraction of Teeth and its relation to the

0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.560
<v Speaker 1>ritual disposal of shed deciduous teeth. Town And said that

0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.040
<v Speaker 1>cultures tend to do one of nine things. Throw the

0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.400
<v Speaker 1>tooth into the sun, into fire, between the legs, onto

0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.600
<v Speaker 1>or over the roof of the house, place it in

0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.320
<v Speaker 1>a mouse hole, bury it, hide it, place it in

0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.640
<v Speaker 1>a tree or on a wall, or have the mother

0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:23.599
<v Speaker 1>child or an animal swallow it. Americans, however, spun the

0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:27.520
<v Speaker 1>legend in a unique way, blending and augmenting existing traditions

0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.359
<v Speaker 1>to result in a benevolent fairy who rewards the dental

0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.880
<v Speaker 1>milestone with money, and as Hingston points out, the tooth

0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.719
<v Speaker 1>fairy star rose at a time when Disney was introducing

0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.839
<v Speaker 1>kind and cuddly characters who are perfectly in line with

0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:45.359
<v Speaker 1>the tooth fairies sweet and supernatural image. If you're a

0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.800
<v Speaker 1>parent and unsure of how to handle the tooth fairy

0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.479
<v Speaker 1>topic with your young tot, Colombo has a suggestion. He said,

0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.719
<v Speaker 1>we encourage parents to call tooth fairy hotlines for the

0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.160
<v Speaker 1>first tooth lost, as well as remind them to put

0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.280
<v Speaker 1>the tooth under the pillow so the tooth fairy can

0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.760
<v Speaker 1>work their mad check. And yes, googling tooth fairy hotlines

0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.960
<v Speaker 1>does turn up all sorts of helpful results, including apps

0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.280
<v Speaker 1>and local dentist's office voice mailboxes, and if you're curious

0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.720
<v Speaker 1>how much the tooth Fairy is doling out nowadays. A

0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.240
<v Speaker 1>researchers found that the national average was up to four

0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:20.720
<v Speaker 1>dollars and sixty six cents as of almost higher than

0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.280
<v Speaker 1>the average in eleven, which was around two dollars and

0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.760
<v Speaker 1>sixty cents. But if you're a freaked out and frugal

0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:31.080
<v Speaker 1>parent in you can breathe a sigh of relief. Study

0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.800
<v Speaker 1>found the national average had dipped back down to three

0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.920
<v Speaker 1>dollars and seventy cents. So despite the impact of inflation,

0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.919
<v Speaker 1>it appears even the tooth Fairy has her monetary limits.

0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.120
<v Speaker 1>And if you're wondering whether it's time to break the

0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.279
<v Speaker 1>news to your kid that you're the one responsible for

0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:49.320
<v Speaker 1>that under the pillow cash reward, you can relax. Columbo said,

0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.360
<v Speaker 1>we don't have a timeline to discuss when we stopped

0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.120
<v Speaker 1>talking about the tooth Fairy at our office. We love

0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.000
<v Speaker 1>to encourage kids young and old to think of the

0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.240
<v Speaker 1>tooth Fairy. It's positive reinforcement and it helps give the

0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.479
<v Speaker 1>children something to look forward to during a part of

0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.520
<v Speaker 1>their lives where things are changing for the better. We're

0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.279
<v Speaker 1>pediatric dentists and we revel in the mythology and the

0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.560
<v Speaker 1>fun and whether you're five and losing your first tooth

0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.280
<v Speaker 1>or twelve and losing your last baby tooth, it's all

0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:22.239
<v Speaker 1>part of the experience. Today's episode was written by Michelle

0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.680
<v Speaker 1>Kanstantinovski and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production

0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:27.720
<v Speaker 1>of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more on

0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.760
<v Speaker 1>this and lots of other tooths and topics, visit our

0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.520
<v Speaker 1>home planet has stuff Works dot com and for more

0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.039
<v Speaker 1>podcasts for my heart Radio because the iHeart Radio app,

0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.880
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.