There’s a story in my family that when I was just a little girl I excitedly told my mother that the Tooth Fairy had come to visit…and she had a mustache. If you take a look at a picture of my dad, you’ll get the joke — he’s sported the same mustache for just about my entire life. But for whatever reason, the little child that I was didn’t recognize my father and chose to believe in something magical instead. For a lot of kids a visit from the Tooth Fairy is exciting — unlike Christmas or a birthday, you can’t be sure exactly when you’ll loose a tooth. Whether it’s the tooth fairy, or even the Tooth Mouse, cultures worldwide celebrate a child’s loss of their deciduous teeth.

I lost all of my baby teeth very prematurely. I had all but a couple of my adult teeth by the time I entered first grade. The result was a mouth full of teeth a little too large for my head, and I spent the next couple of years looking something like a squirrel. I didn’t mind though — unlike so many of the kids I went to school with, I never had to have braces. And actually, neither did Chris so maybe our own kid(s) will inherit our good luck. Hopefully our offspring will take after their father when it comes to their overall dental health though. Chris has only ever had one or two cavities, while I’ve already had two root canals and an apicoectomy. There’s nothing like a little oral surgery to remind you just how important your choppers really are.