The Tooth Fairy is an Evil Thieving Witch

A couple of Sundays ago, my family and I were enjoying a late afternoon movie together when my four-year-old, who was sitting on her daddy's lap, suddenly blurted out, Daddy, what's wrong with my tooth?

He looked at the tooth that my daughter had apparently been touching and said, Oh my God, it's loose! That discovery completely shocked us because she is only four, which I thought was very early. Not a single one of her preschool or dance school classmates had lost a tooth yet. So I replied with a little bit of a panicked, WHAT??!

My daughter, who I have to admit is the vainest four-year-old I have ever met, immediately burst into tears, screaming in fear and absolute sadness, No! I'll never be pretty again! I'll never smile again! I'll never eat again! She was positively inconsolable for a solid hour. At least. She even said that if she had to lose a tooth now, then her two-year-old sister did, too! I was afraid she'd downright take it from her herself if she had to! She was that upset.

I tried to explain to her that losing her tooth just meant she was becoming a big girl. I reminded her about the Tooth Fairy, and how the Tooth Fairy would bring her money for her tooth. She did not like this concept at all. She immediately got angry and said, Why does she want MY tooth?! Doesn't she have her own? She clearly thinks the Tooth Fairy is some thief in the night that steals children's teeth - that she's the very reason children even have to lose their first teeth. I tried to explain otherwise, but it was of no use.

When we ate dinner that night, she made us cut everything up into bite-size bits. Not only did she push everything to the back of her mouth, but she also turned her head sideways so that all of the food stayed to one side of her mouth. To say she was being a drama queen would be a major understatement. I felt very sorry for her, but a part of me also thought, Dear Lord, we still have a lot of future tooth losses to endure this through!

I eventually had a good friend of hers, who is a year older and has lost a few teeth, call her and talk to her about it. My daughter really looks up to this girl, so the call did seem to help.

The next day, I did some research on the Internet about primary tooth loss because I was concerned about her losing one so early. I found that the typical age for losing a first tooth ranges from five to seven, but the most common age is six. I also read that premature loss of primary teeth could be a sign of bone disease or other problems, so I was a bit concerned. She was already scheduled for her routine six-month checkup with her dentist that following week, so I figured I could discuss it with him then.

Well, it turned out to be more than just the typical loss of a first tooth. When I told the hygienist about the wiggly tooth, she seemed concerned. She said that 1) she was a little young to be losing her first tooth; and 2) that the typical first lost tooth is one of the bottom from, but my daughter's loose tooth was one of her top front ones. She asked if she had received any trauma to the face, which she had not or I would've heard about it from my little drama queen. Believe me. The hygienist said that she felt something else was going on and wanted to do some x-rays.

When she said that of course my findings on the Internet about bone disease began to worry me. When she came out with the x-rays, she called other dental assistants over and said, Look at this!!! as if whatever the x-rays showed was a big deal. I didn't even wait for her to come back to me. I interrupted their huddle with an insistent, WHAT??!

The hygienist called the dentist over and they explained that my daughter has a rare condition called hyperdontia, which basically means she has a supernumerary (extra) tooth. These "faux" teeth do not look like normal teeth - they are long, skinny and peg-like. My daughter's "extra" is in the place where one of her front teeth should be, causing her real permanent tooth to not only shift, but it has completely rotated and is now facing sideways. And of course the rest of her teeth are shifting and becoming over-crowded.

Her dentist said that as far as this kind of problem goes, it's a good case because the extra tooth is coming down straight, whereas most kinds of these come in really strange - sideways or sometimes even pointing straight up towards the nose, still in the bone. He said as soon as she loses this primary tooth and the "faux" tooth erupts, they will have to excise that fake tooth. Hers will be relatively easy to remove, as opposed to some of these other cases, but it will still be a major excision. The hope is that after this supernumerary tooth is removed, the other teeth will move and shift back to at least a semi-normal position. She will have a sizable gap and she will most likely have years of radical orthodontic work ahead of her.

The dentist told my daughter that the good news is that she will cash in on at least one extra tooth from the Tooth Fairy. My daughter almost audibly growled at the mention of this evil, thieving witch.

I worry that this entire procedure, which will undeniably be a very unpleasant experience, will leave her absolutely terrified of the dentist, whom she currently very much likes. My friend works at a dental office and says she has patients who had not been to the dentist for 20 years because of a bad early childhood experience at the dentist. She suggested that my daughter be put to sleep for the excision, but the dentist said it wouldn't be necessary. I'll have to think about that one.

Beyond these concerns, however, I am also worried that she will suffer a severe blow to her self-esteem due to the problems she's going to have with her teeth for quite some time. As I stated early, my daughter is very vain. She loves, loves, loves to dress up and feel like a pretty princess. She was worried about her looks just at the thought of the "normal" loss of a tooth. But now she very well might have a severely, severely misaligned grin - the kind I remember bullies torturing kids about. If this were my other daughter, I would not be as concerned. In fact, it would almost suit her quirky personality. But the truth is, maybe this is exactly what my older daughter needs to jolt her out of her emphasis on her "perfect" looks and focus on other things. We have been trying to do just that (even before the discovery of this supernumerary tooth), and have always told her she is beautiful on the outside and inside.

Her teacher has helped tremendously in turning the situation of the upcoming tooth loss into a positive experience. Since my daughter is the first in the class who will experience this (and probably the only one), she has been focusing lesson plans around teeth, trips to the dentist, losing first teeth, etc., and all of the kids are very interested and giving my daughter a lot of attention because of it. Of course they don't understand that her tooth loss will not be a "normal" case, but that doesn't matter. My daughter is starting to become proud of her wiggly tooth and it's impending departure. And no matter what happens I hope that she will always be proud of her smile because it will always be beautiful to us.