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This week, the Gal Pals are grinning ear to ear and excited to teach you all about... teeth!! Miranda unpacks the history of the Tooth Fairy, why kids lose their teeth, and what to do with those pearly whites after you-- I mean the "Tooth Fairy"-- carefully extracts them from under the pillow! Then, Mel delves into some common dental displeasures, including cavities, root canals, and more! Mix it up with some mayhem stories about those chompers and this episode will surely leave a smile on your face!!


SPOTLIGHT:

www.americastoothfairy.org

America's Tooth Fairy

America's ToothFairy: National Children's Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF) was founded in 2006 as a collaborative effort of clinicians, academicians, corporate leaders and caring individuals to address the children’s oral health crisis.


SOURCES:

Mel-

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/dental/art-20047475

https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/mouth-and-teeth-anatomy/how-many-teeth-do-we-have#

https://www.adea.org/GoDental/Health_Professions_Advisors/History_of_Dentistry.aspx

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21759-root-canal


Miranda-

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/when-do-kids-start-losing-teeth

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/origins-tooth-fairy-180949746/

https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/tooth-fairy.htm

https://homecleaningfamily.com/what-to-do-with-baby-teeth/



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Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Episode: https://shows.acast.com/motherhood-mayhem-medical-mysteries/episodes/066-the-teeth-episode

Podcast: https://mypod.online

Broadcast on:
30 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
other
This podcast is all about the mayhem of motherhood, and each week we'll explore an interesting topic in women's or children's health. To be honest, all of this can get pretty graphic, and we've been known to use explicit language. So please listen at your discretion. It's the motherhood mayhem and medical mysteries podcast. We know that's a lot of M's, but we did that on purpose because I'm Mel, and I'm Miranda, and the whole goal of this show is to come alongside you and share about relevant topics in parenting, physical and mental health, and of course the mayhem that comes along with it. Look, we aren't experts or doctors or scientists, we're just two working moms trying to figure it out as best we can. We're all in this together, so we might as well have some fun. Here's Miranda. She was in braces for seven years, and that's Melanie. She's had 14 teeth pulled. Speaking of braces, how is Jonah doing with his new full metal jacket? Ah, funny story. So I believe it was day three that he had braces, and so we had just gone through the whole process. They had put all of these braces on. They looked great. And he's brushing his teeth, and he's like, "Hey, mama, come look, something's weird." The child had already popped a whole bracket off. Oh my gosh. I remember when that used to happen to me. It detaches from your tooth, and it's kind of floating out there in front of your tooth sliding around. It's a weird feeling. We're three days in. We have to get an appointment back because obviously you can't be running around with a bracket because it was poking into like cheek. Yeah. So we go back and get that done, and then I want to say it was like a week or two later, and he popped another bracket. What kind of glue they use when over there? They need to get marine grade. What is happening? Well, I talked to the lady when we went back the second time, and I was like, "What is going on?" This is not normal. Yeah, this can't be a normal situation where you haven't even had braces for a month, and you've already lost two brackets. And she said, because it's where his teeth are crisscrossed. Oh, yeah. They just, they try to put them on and like hope that they'll stay. But because of the distance between like the wires. Yeah, the wires just pulling it away from his teeth because of the angle. That makes sense. But I'm kind of like, "Well, yeah, cut a window, lady. I mean, what is this?" It's like, here I am like, "Wow, I just gave you thousands of dollars of my own money." No lie. Oh my gosh. And I have now gotten off of work three times in a month to handle this, but... Wow. And braces. I've got to make sure that Jonah doesn't listen to this part of this episode, but uh-oh. This is funny, and like I think all parents will relate to it. So when they had to replace the bottom, like they were trying to fix it. They have to take the wire off. So you were right. Right. You had seven years of experience. I could be an orthodontist. Yeah. They take all the rubber bands off and they pull the wire off. Uh-huh. And they said, "Well, while you have this off, we'll have you go over." They have like, "It's much fancier these days than it was when I was a kid." But please go over to the sink and brush your teeth and floss. Oh, okay. Yeah. So there's this sink in the room, which I think it's weird how dentist like a lot of them these days are these wide open rooms. Yeah. Not a lot of privacy. You're just kind of out there with your teeth. Yeah. I'm not a fan of that, but anyway, so I'm watching him, but he's kind of at the age where like he doesn't want me telling him how to do anything. Sure. Well, the toothbrushes that they have are already have toothpaste on them. Oh. 'Cause he's over there like he pulls it. It's in like a plastic wrapper and he's like looking around and there's a kid next to him. So like, he figured out that part, but then it became very obvious that we are not a household that has ever flossed with like dental foam. Like string. Yeah. Like we always have the little... The little picks. Oh, yeah. The picks are the way to go. Yeah. They're all over the environment, but I mean, we're going to use them. Yeah. It's like the cake up of dental hygiene. Have you ever thought about that? I mean, I feel like just by mass, cake ups are worse, but yeah. Correct. Well, by mass, these little tooth flosser pick things are worse. I know. You're right. And then you see them like lying on the road somewhere and you're like, "Oh, yeah. There was one in the parking lot at my office the other day." Yeah. It's like a really gross feeling. It's like a band-aid and a pool. Like I don't want to think about you flossing your teeth in the parking lot at work and then discarding your saliva-drenched toothpick here for me to see. I'm sorry. It's disgusting. Get it together, humanity. Well, anyway, so they have this, like, it's like a tower dental floss thing. Like it's clearly supposed to sit there. It's like it's just a table of dental floss, right? I got you. Yeah. But he has no idea what to do with it. And so I was trying not to pay attention because we're all in this open room and I know that he doesn't want me paying attention to what's going on. But why do I look over and he has the whole thing with the floss out of it up by his mouth? Oh my god. I was up off of my chair running over there. I'm like, "What are you doing?" He's like, "They told me to floss. I don't know what to do with this." And he's holding this big thing that's like, "Like a, like a mega floss dispenser up next to his cheek." And I'm like, "Let me have that." I like grabbed it out of his hand. I'm like, "You've got to rip the floss off." You don't want to pick this part up. And he's like, "I've never seen this before." And I'm like, "I know." I love that so much. That is so cute. Yeah. Don't let him listen to it. He'll be so embarrassed. He'll be so embarrassed. But I think I totally did though. It wasn't his fault. Yeah. You wouldn't have known what to do with that. It's not like there was a tutorial video that came up. I mean, he's never seen one of those. So not at all. Yeah. I can't blame him. And it is like so weird because your kid wants to do things and they want to be independent, but you have to kind of hold back and say, "Okay, I'm not going to show you." But oh my God, you're screwing that up so bad. Like, like Fisher is now like whenever he drinks enough of his chocolate milk at dinner, he's like, "I'm going to be bop and go get myself some more chocolate milk." And Brad's like, "Oh, I'm going to get up and help." And then I'm just like, "No, no, no. Let's wait. Let's see what happens." And then sure enough, we end up with a puddle on the kitchen floor and then Fisher's cleaning it up. And maybe next time he doesn't spill it and/or he asks, but anyway, I totally, totally understand it. Listeners, if you haven't guessed, this is our teeth episode. Yes. And so we hope you are just grinning ear to ear. I should clarify. I had 14 baby teeth pulled. What? They were still, well, I mean, I couldn't have 14 teeth. I wouldn't have any teeth. I thought they were a wisdom teeth or something where you didn't know. Oh my God. They're fully in my gums like, wow, yeah. It was very traumatic. And it wasn't all at once. It was like four and six or something like that. Good grief. That's a lot. But they had to do that so that my other teeth would come in because that's what was happening. Yeah. They were, oh yeah, I've heard about that. Your big teeth can come in like behind or in front of your baby teeth and it gets all off. That's what they were trying to do. Did I ever tell you how I lost my two front teeth? No. My parents, if they listen to this episode, they're going to get a kick out of this because this is one of their favorite stories to tell. But I was in, I was in preschool, I was only four years old and for some crazy reason at my Tennessee preschool where I guess there weren't enough enriching activities for us kids to do, I came up with this idea that I could lay on my belly like a worm and bite onto the back of like a kid's shoe. And if they walked, they could like pull me across the floor and that was the teeth with my teeth. And that was going to be like a fun like, Hey, take me for a ride around the room on my belly. Oh my, by walking around. Now the real question is who was supervising this activity? Who was supposed to be watching you? I have caught flack my whole entire life for this incident. And I just want to say it never should have happened like if I shouldn't have if I'm supervising a room full of four year olds and I see a kid like, Hey, can I bite your shoe? So you can pull me around the room like like it's a ride or something. I'm going to be like, hold up now. Let's rethink this activity, but no, here I go. You sunk your teeth into some other child, like, did you warn the child? Oh, yeah. No, it was a plan. It was like, Hey, here's. Okay. Here's what I'm going to do. Here's what you're going to do. Conspired to do. Yeah. It was a plan. Yeah. What type of shoes? I don't remember. I mean, I guess just sneakers, but like I'm like picture me behind their ankle on my belly on the floor with like my hands down by my side. And I just like onto the back of that shoe and I'm like, okay, go. And they start dragging me across the floor and there came both of my two front teeth. Just boop right out like that. Oh my gosh. I know. I don't think anybody else has that story except for me. They definitely, I hope nobody else has that story. Oh my gosh. The worker. Did they have to, they had to call your mom obviously. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think they got a kick out of explaining to her how the hell that situation happened. And I remember this is weird, but I remember they gave my mom like my two front teeth and a ziplock bag full of milk, like the milk was like a preservative for my team. No, they do that. If they think they're going to put them back in, what? Like if you lose an adult tooth, that is made of not in milk. That is not real. For real? I swear I've heard it before. Oh my gosh. I mean, I don't think I don't think that you would put four year olds two front teeth back in. I don't think not after that traumatic event, this girl doesn't deserve two front teeth. Okay, when a tooth separates from its socket, it must stay moist. So milk will allow it to stay moist and it has vital proteins and sugar that make it a good choice for a dental emergency. There's your tip, everyone, if a tooth, if an adult tooth comes out of somebody, put it in milk. And then I mean, I don't even know where you go with that. Like, is there an emergency dental clinic somewhere that's open 24/7? I just think about that episode of Seinfeld where they're on the bus with the toe, the pinky toe and Kramer's got to drive the bus. So what kind of medical mystery or toothacle mystery do you have for us on this exciting teeth episode? Oh, it's toothacle. It is definitely toothacle. It's kind of a hodgepodge of tooth-related topics, but you know, we use our teeth every day, but we don't really think about them unless something's wrong, you know? It's true. So I thought we should kind of do like a broad view and then kind of zoom in on a couple things. So I wanted to start with oral health and how important it is to our overall health. And I think that that is something that a lot of us don't think about. But it's actually incredibly important. And if your teeth aren't healthy, it's very likely that you're going to have other health problems. So I did a lot of reading about this to kind of, you know, find some good information for us. Our entire bodies, and we all know that, but we don't like to think about it, our bodies are like covered in germs and most of these germs are harmless. But the ones that are in our mouth, if you really step back and think about our mouth, like our mouth is not only the entry point to our digestive tract, which has a huge impact on our overall health, but it's also an entry way to the organs that allow breathing. So think of all of those bodily functions that are connected to it. You know, if the germs in our mouth get out of control or we have disease within our teeth and our mouth, it can actually spread throughout our body. So yeah, that's a, that's a really good point that you don't think about, but that's kind of the entry point for air and food. Yeah. I mean, honestly, the biggest entry point we've got, really. And we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. There it is. So then I also wanted to talk about, you know me and the way, way back machine, the history of dentistry. Ooh, I love it because we're not the only two people that have ever realized that dental health is really important. So it is actually known to be one of the oldest medical professions dating back to about 7,000 B.C. really, oh, yeah, now that was recorded in the Indus Valley civilization, which I have no more notes about that, but it was a long, long time ago. We're going to leave that alone too. Yeah. It wasn't until about 5,000 B.C. that descriptions relating to dentistry and tooth decay were actually available. So it was like people knew, but like it didn't really get into kind of recorded stuff until a little later. And at that time, a Sumerian text described, wait for it, tooth worms. Ew. Don't worry, it's not real. Tooth worms aren't real. But at that time, they thought that tooth worms were what caused dental decay. And in all honesty, that wasn't proven to be false until the 1700s. Oh my gosh. Thousands of years. People thought it was tooth worms. Ew, that's so gross. So as we go forward in history, in ancient Greece, both Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote about dentistry. They were specifically concerned about treating decaying teeth, but it wasn't until 1530 that there was actually a book that was devoted to dentistry. But I have to read you the title, because it's incredible. It was called the little medicinal book for all kinds of disease and infirmities of the teeth. That's so cute, very on the nose, infirmities of the teeth. Now in the 1700s, that is when dentistry became like a more defined profession. So it's like, we're actually like we have dentists now, you know. The father of modern dentistry, his name was Pia Fuschod. He was French, Frenchy, nice. And he was actually a surgeon, but he specialized in teeth. And he was the first person actually to ever introduce the idea of dental fillings or dental prosthesis or dentures. Wow. Well, that makes sense because like you said 1700s. Yes. Because didn't they say like, you know, George Washington had wood and teeth? And I mean, I think they were giving people like fake teeth, probably like by the late 1700s. Right. Right. Well, he started his whole dentistry deal in like the early 1700s. So yeah, and actually Fuschod was also the one who identified that it was actually acids from sugar that led to tooth decay and not the worms. How very perceptive of you. You could say he found out the tooth. Yes. Well, so then in the 1800s, there was the first dental college and that was actually in Baltimore. And in the United States, this is this is crazy, but it and I wouldn't have guessed it. But in the United States, the state of Alabama led the way by enacting the first dental practice act. Wow. And they haven't probably done too much since Alabama. Come on. I mean, I've only spent looking at amounts of time in Alabama, but I they're just one step above Tennessee. Okay. One step. Yeah. Well, and then the first actual university, like, you know, there was a college of dental, but that was like, that's all they did there. Like the first university to take on like a dental education program was Harvard. And that was in the mid 1800s. Nice. Now this also very much surprised me. Colgate started producing the first toothpaste, like mass producing the first toothpaste. You want to guess what year? Oh gosh, I, this is going to weird you out, but I just heard this on another podcast I was listening to. Like it was some time, I know it was sometime in the 1900s, right? That they started producing. No earlier, 1873. Oh, wow. This was like civil war toothpaste. They mass produced the first toothpaste in 1873. Wow. Okay. And I get toothpaste, but I didn't realize they've been around for that long. Yes. And they also have, I believe it's 31 different types of toothpaste that they offer. Wow. That is interesting. Yeah. So here's the really crazy part. So I've just gave you got all of that. And that's like kind of through history, what has happened with dental stuff. I loved it. Yeah. But Americans did not actually widely adopt good brushing habits. Do you want to know when, when, when, tell me, after World War II, I can, I can believe that. I can believe that. I mean, people were really busy before then. They didn't have time to brush their teeth. Well, what it said is that there were so many soldiers, like American soldiers have stationed abroad during World War II. Yeah. They like brought the concept of good oral health back to the United States, like apparently it existed in other places. In other countries. Oh, right. Isn't that funny? That cracks me up. I'm like, really? US? Come on now. Slackers. A bunch of slackers. I know. That's usual. Um, so I wanted to look into this as well because I, I feel like we should all know how many teeth we have, but I didn't really know how many teeth we have. Do you know how many teeth an adult has, like, thirty six good, no, good guess. It's actually thirty two. Oh, if a person has all thirty two teeth, that eight incisors, four canines, eight premolars and 12 molars and the 12 molars would include four wisdom teeth. Are you counting your teeth right now? I'm totally counting my teeth right now. So if you didn't have your wisdom teeth, you would have twenty eight teeth as opposed to children who only have twenty. I had twenty six, I have twenty six. Why do you only have twenty six? Because I like you had some teeth pulled for, for my braces. My interest, my interest like pulled some of my teeth to make room for my braces. Yeah, for four teeth. So how many teeth do you have? Count yours. Um, I guess I have thirty one. I didn't count. I have three wisdom teeth and they've never been pulled. Are they like down or are they still up in your gums? Oh, no, they're down. I have three down. Oh, I don't have the fourth one. I have three. Hmm. They're mine's hairs. I'm keeping them back there. They pulled all my wisdom teeth plus four molars when I got my braces. Yeah. So the about wisdom teeth that is very common for adults to have their wisdom teeth removed. A lot of times because there's not room for them to come in. And that's what you'll hear like, oh, it's, I can't remember impacted or whatever. That's why a lot of times that's an oral surgeon that does that. Yeah. A lot of times it's either that or they're worried about they're going to make the other teeth be misaligned. So and most of us have all of those teeth by our teenage years. So which I guess that's accurate. I think my wisdom teeth came in like the last and like they still were moving up until a few years ago. Like, because they were like not all the way in. It's kind of weird. Um, so then the next thing that I wanted to do is kind of give us a, a shallow dive on the most common dental procedures, which we should all be familiar with. But I did a lot of different research and looked at a lot of different websites. Of course, the most common dental thing is just the routine cleanings, which if you have good insurance and you're doing what you should, you're going twice a year to get that have that lady scrape your teeth until all that yucky stuff out of there. You feel like you're going to come out of your own skin. It's not great. My den is go has TVs on the ceiling. So that's enjoyable because I just watched Seinfeld with the captions on and she does her thing. I would, I would like that actually. It's not bad. Yeah. It's not bad. Yeah. It's not bad. My dentist doesn't have TVs on it on the ceiling. We got, we got Roku. We got Netflix. We got Hulu. We got it all. Yeah. And you're in charge too. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. The common things is to fillings, which of course you put a filling in a cavity. Now, do you want to guess a percentage of adult Americans that have a cavity? Oh gosh. I'd say they're at least eight by their mid 30s. Guess I'd say 50% 50% at least. More than 80% of American now that at least one cavity by the time they enter their mid 30s. Wow. This is not caused by a tooth worm. This is caused by bacteria that is probably like has to do with food. They're usually in places where like they're not, it's not getting as clean as it should and like stuff just sits there and it makes a little indent and then the bacteria get in there and it kind of eats away at your tooth. I have had a number of fillings. So the deal with that is they drill out like where the bacteria has gotten to like the area that's decayed and then they put, they call it a megamel. Don't ask me to spell it because I didn't write it down. But it's like, can I call you that? Can I call you a megamel from now on? She's a megamel. It's a mag, a mag, a magamelle. I don't know about being it right even, but it could be like resin. It could be. It's like a number of different things, but it's like whatever they shove in there and then smooth the tooth back out. And there's a bunch of different types of fillings. I didn't go into all of that. One of the other more common procedures is a crown. Do you have a crown? No. No. I don't either, but I've always kind of wondered what that was all about. So what a crown is, is if your tooth is decayed so much that like a regular filling won't do, like say like a whole part of your tooth has come off or whatever has decayed. So what they do is they like they clean it up and get rid of all the decayed area and then they put like a little hat on it. It's literally like a crown they fit this little thing on it. Oh my gosh. So the crown fits over your entire tooth like a snug little hat. And a lot of times this involves like multiple visits because they do like a temporary crown and then somebody creates the real crown and these can be made of like resin. They can even do them with like metal or porcelain. It's a variety of different materials or gold or platinum gold platinum diamond. I don't know, but they fit that over. So that's to like restore your tooth. A crown can also be used if you have like a cracked tooth, like they can, they can kind of clean it up and then make it a little hat, which I thought sounded fun. That is fun. I love it. Now in my research, I found the next procedure that I'm going to mention to be one of the most dreaded ones and it is a root canal. Have you ever had a root canal? No, but I've heard of root canals and I hear they're awful, but I honestly couldn't tell you what it is. All right. Here's what's going on in a root canal. The root canal is used to treat infections in the tooth pulp. So our teeth are like these firm little things, but like they're alive in there and there's like this pulpy part on the inside in the middle. It's like so chilly or something. Yeah. If the bacteria gets through, I'm sorry, I'm pointing to my teeth that you can probably hear that on the recording. If the bacteria gets through all of the layers of like the enamel and outer part of the tooth and it gets into like the pulp part, then they have to go in and clean that out. So you're like way deep in the tooth. So they've got to like drill in there and here, of course, the website that I pulled a lot of this from was like a dental website and it said, typically root canals are painless. I've heard otherwise, but I have, I have not had one. Of course they're numbing you, but that's the reason why it's such a thing is because they're getting way down and there. Oh my gosh. So these involve several steps. So it's like they have to drill into it and then remove the effected pulp, like the infected pulp, the little sad pulp. They have to be the dental worm and they worm in there and they get the, they get the pulp out and then they put a filling in the pulp area and then they put a crown over it. Oh my goodness. Involves both the procedure of cleaning out the infected pulp and also putting a crown on it to cover it. Whoa. Yeah. Now some of the other things that I read about and I'll just touch on these quickly. There was bonding. That's where they like, they like seal. I think it's like basically like sealing your teeth. Like I don't know. Every time I read about it. I felt like it was varnish. They were putting a little varnish on your teeth. I've had that done on my teeth, like because the surface of them, maybe from my braces was uneven or something. So they put, they call it like a composite bonding over the top of it to kind of like smooth it out so that it wouldn't have like a dip or like a weird spot. I'm picturing somebody like patching a hole in a cheap rock or whatever. Yeah. That's kind of the way I think about it. Yeah. Another one that I read about was veneers and a lot of people will get those. That's more of a cosmetic thing. And that's kind of a weird deal. Like they drill your actual tooth down to like a nubbin sort of. And then they put on these veneers that like are perfect and like white. Yeah. But that's quite an undertaking. And then the dental implant is another one that's like getting more and more popular. But the one thing that I didn't ever realize about that was that that's a multi-step process. Like you have to, if they're removing a tooth, like say a tooth can't be fixed with a root canal or whatever the case may be, and they pull the tooth, well first they have to like drill in like the post that's going to hold the implant and then there's like a healing process around that and then they have to fit. So that's like a really, that's a undertaking. It's an undertaking. So I got an implant when I was 18 because I, maybe this is why I don't have enough teeth, but my baby tooth for one of my incisors never came in. So or my adult tooth, I mean, so I just like didn't have it. It was really weird, but they, they did an implant and it was exactly like you're saying. They had to drill this little screw in there and it was like just the metal screw was hanging down and they gave me like a little, they called it a flipper to kind of cover the screw. So I wouldn't be a screw tooth. And then I had to go back and they had to like actually screw the little tooth part on there. But the tooth is completely fake, but it's on a big, it's on a big metal post up there. And I think it goes all the way like to your bone. Like it's in there. It goes, it goes, it goes all the way in there crazy. So that was what I had. That's like my broad strokes overview of common dental procedures. I hope that you all were as entertained as I was about learning that a crown is a little hat tooth and that a root canal is your dentist being a toothworm. Yes. And you know, on the toothworm thing, I was thinking about that and it kind of makes sense because they probably saw like, oh, your tooth is all brown. And the only context they had for that maybe would have been like an apple that was brown from like a worm. Yeah. Like they were probably like, oh, apples get worms. I guess teeth get worms and you get like a brown spot here too. So interesting. We've come a long way. We've had our history lesson, what are, well, maybe we've only had one history lesson for today. What are you teaching us about? I wanted to talk about how kids lose teeth and how weird that is and weird. It's really weird. And like, why do they lose teeth and what do we do about it and how do we, how do we process that? Because yeah, it's kind of disgusting when you think about it. It's so gross. Yeah. Please tell me, what was I supposed to do that I didn't? It's really weird. Well, so first of all, I kind of just wanted to understand like, why do we lose our teeth? Like why can't we just have? But then I thought about like a baby that had like full blown adult teeth and how creepy that would look. They wouldn't even sit. They wouldn't even sit in a baby mouth. I think that's, I think you answered your own question. It'd be really weird. It'd be really weird looking. So yes, let's, let's start with kind of, why does this even happen? So you talked about how many teeth we have by the time we're an adult, right? Yes. Do you know how many baby teeth we have? I do actually 20 20 that's right. And most of the time kids are going to have all 20 of those baby teeth by the time they're two years old, they're going to have all 20 teeth. And that explains a lot of the misery because every time it's coming in, oh my gosh. But like, why do we have baby teeth? Two main things, baby teeth hold space for the permanent teeth and they allow the jaw to grow and accommodate them as they grow into place. Now what's weird is if you look at an x-ray of like a six or seven year old, all of their adult teeth are already in there. They just haven't come down yet and it looks really freakish. I highly encourage listeners to like Google that because it's really, really trippy. But I'm sure like before Jonah got his braces, they did like some x-rays and if you looked at those, you may have seen like all those teeth are in there. Yeah. But baby teeth are also structured very differently than adult teeth. So you taught us about the pulp that's in the middle. Baby teeth actually have a lot more pulp with more nerves and blood vessels and tissue, which may also be part of the reason that teething is so hard for kids when they're a little because there's more like nerves and stuff in there. And when a baby tooth is lost, all of that pulp in the middle of the tooth like essentially dissolves and when it like dissolves, it creates space for the adult tooth behind it to start pushing up from behind. And you know, as that process kind of happens, that baby tooth is working its way out. It's kind of reached the end of its life, but that tooth behind it is kind of putting additional pressure on it. And if you think about like all of the nerves and blood vessels and stuff that's going there, that system's getting a lot weaker causing that baby tooth to like get loose and wiggly and then fall out. Which is very uncomfortable for the little bugger. Yeah. It's kind of, you know, sometimes I think it's more painful than other kids. Like I think some kids have an easier time with it. Fisher's lost several teeth by this point and he's just kind of bebops along like he's just like, oh, do, do, do, do, do, do, but I remember like when one of my teeth came out, like my mom kind of pulled it and like I passed out. I was like. Yeah. We told. We told that story. Oh, yeah. I guess that's true. Like I would say the teeth, the baby teeth coming in, in my opinion, is way worse than them coming out. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed for sure. For sure. And then they don't have like all the snottiness and all of the, oh, that was the worst. So typically, unless you're me and you're chewing on other kids' shoes at preschool, baby teeth typically start to fall out around age six and the last molars come out around age 12. So and it usually starts in the front of your mouth and kind of works its way to the back as you're falling out. So probably very similar to the order that they came in. So we talked about pain, a lot of kids don't experience pain when their teeth are coming out. Some think maybe it just feels kind of funny or it's weird. And the only thing that you may notice as a parent is maybe they don't want to take a bite with that tooth. Like maybe they don't want to eat certain foods that would require them to like bite down on the wiggly tooth. So I remember I couldn't leave it alone with my tongue. Yeah. Like a wiggly tooth, it was like, that was, some kids aren't like that. I was definitely like that. Like it's almost like I can't focus on anything because I've got this wiggly tooth that my tongue won't leave alone. Yeah. And yeah, I was probably the same. I probably had my whole hand in my mouth like trying to wiggle my teeth because it was like so distracting, right? And you know, it's not discouraged for kids to wiggle their teeth when they're loose, whether with their tongue or their finger, like it's totally fine. It could be bad if they don't get that tooth out because then like what you're saying could happen where an adult tooth comes in actually all the way behind or in front of one of the baby teeth. And then a dentist typically is going to have to get involved and like pull or remove the baby tooth. So nothing wrong with encouraging the tooth to come out. And you know, some kids, if it does kind of hurt, then you can give them like Tylenol or ibuprofen. I gave Fisher like a little cold wet washcloth to kind of suck on and hold on the spot that was bleeding for a little while, which he wasn't really interested in after after about two minutes. He was, he was ready to go. And this is interesting, but after your kid loses a tooth, you may want to avoid letting them use a straw. Um, it's said that the suction from the straw could remove like the essentially like this, the scab or like the blood clot where their gum is healing. And it just gives it more time to heal. You know, you don't want to like poke that area, but for the most part, it's fine for them to eat regular foods after they lose their teeth. And it's very important to continue good oral hygiene, brushing, using toothpaste and brushing not only their teeth, but also their gums as well. You know, one of the funniest things about Jonah is every time he would lose a tooth, like within 48 hours, the adult tooth would be like halfway in. No way. His teeth move so crazy fast. It's wild. Are you serious? I mean, have you seen any pictures of him that he had a gap? He didn't. No. Whoa. It was like, those baby teeth would come out and it was like, boop. Two days later, new tooth. Fissures are much slower, like his or much lower. I think most kids are much slower, but like when Fisher's baby tooth came out, it's like you barely see the white of the adult tooth, like coming down. And then it's weird because it's like he'll have one like his front teeth right now or like this. Like the first one is like all the way down in the second one's only like half, like a little window shade that somebody didn't pull down all the way. So weird looking, but I can't talk because my teeth were a complete and utter train wreck. Okay. I'm really excited to share with you about the next piece of information. Okay. I want to teach you about the history of the tooth fairy. Oh my gosh, please, it is so weird. What a weird practice. So stinking weird and the tooth fairy is pretty much exclusively an American thing. Wow. Yeah. Not a lot of other cultures are doing this. I'm glad for them, but I'm like kind of worried about us. Like they didn't start this trend. Like your French guy, Dr. Fochard, he did not start this trend. So culturally speaking, like from a broad traditional level, there are some interesting things that different folks have done with baby teeth, including throwing them into fire, throwing them over the roof of the house, placing baby teeth in a mouse hole, which is actually a very popular one, very weird, a mouse hole, a mouse hole, like a hole that a mouse lives in. Yeah, we're going to even know how to find a mouse hole, maybe that's my privilege speaking. A lot of cultures will bury their children's baby teeth, like dig a little hole and bury them in the ground. I mean, that's less weird than keeping them. Here's one that's really weird, though. Some cultures have the mother or the child swallow, no, no, no, that can't be good. Like eat it. Like I would not want to do that because some of Fisher's teeth were very pokey. And I was just telling you earlier how my stomach hurts, like I don't think that that would be good. So I talked about the mouse hole. This is one of the more widely practiced rituals, and it's been documented all over the world for whatever reason, Russia, New Zealand, even Mexico. This was a cultural tradition where you would offer the baby teeth to a mouse or a rat as like a sacrifice, like, why are we sacrificing to the rat? Like, don't we want them to go away? That's not weird. The the thought there is, yeah, please help. I'm having trouble. The thought there was that if you sacrifice the tooth to this rat or the mouse, the child's adult teeth would grow in really strong and sturdy, just like like a rat's tooth, basically. So rats are in charge of tooth development, rats have really strong teeth. And if you sacrifice to tooth, it's like you're saying, Hey, Mr. Rat, give your magical strong tooth powers to my kid. Wow. And that is where Mickey Mouse came from. No, stop it. I'm just kidding. But very weird. And lots of countries around the world to this day, instead of leaving their tooth under a pillow, children will leave their teeth out, maybe like on the porch or in the backyard or somewhere that a mouse will find their tooth and take it away and exchange it for like fortune or some other type of gift or something, like a mouse are their tooth fairy. It's very weird. Now when do you think we started this whole tooth fairy thing in America? I honestly, I have no idea. Like I'm hoping that you're going to say like it's really, really old. And it comes from like some sort of, you know, that's not it. Nope. Colgate was mass producing toothpaste way before we had a tooth fairy. Really? Yep. In fact, 1900s, in fact, people probably just started brushing their teeth regularly by the time we got a tooth fairy. It's that recent. So like after World War II, Generation X is estimated to be the first generation that was visited by the tooth fairy. Okay. But why? That's weird. That's very weird. Well, so part of this was because of these different cultures and you think about America is like this melting pot of culture where all these people are coming and like people are leaving these teeth out for rat gifts and rat sacrifices and they're putting their hopes and dreams that they're going to have strong teeth or be rewarded in some way with a gift, right? I guess for whatever reason, instead of a rat, it slowly morphed and they actually said in the research that I found, which was from the Smithsonian. So I feel pretty good about that resource that Disney actually did influence this with movie. I thought you were joking. Nope. With movies like Pinocchio and Cinderella that had this good fairy or like a fairy godmother. So it's like this benevolent creature that comes and makes your wish come true. So that kind of is where it came from. It slowly morphed from a mouse that we left our tooth outside to a fairy that collected it from under our pillow. Yeah. Very weird. Wow. Yes. So I also did some research to see, you know, how much is the tooth fairy giving for a tooth? And I was very despondent to see that this was back in 2013. The average, well, I'll let you guess. How much do you think the national average was per tooth from the tooth fairy in 2013? A dollar. Girl. We've been, we've been shipping our kids, okay? The average is $3.70 per tooth 10 years ago. I mean, I've been giving donut fives or I won't. Okay. Okay. So you're, you're part of the reason for this. Yeah. I up that average. So the, the average did increase by 42% to 2020, but it actually dipped back down. And so it's, it's right around like $4 or so. These days. Wow. Yeah. I only give, well, I don't give Fisher a dollar. No, no. The tooth fairy brings Fisher a dollar for his teeth. Now maybe a molar. He may get a little bit more, but those little, those little nubby things. I'm not giving him. He's not getting nothing. But now here's a question that I really wanted to know the answer to. This was such a fun topic for me because it's so weird and you know, I love weird stuff. Yeah. I do know. What the fuck do we do with these teeth? I would love to know what do you do? Tell me about your tooth collection. What plans do you have or do you still have it? It's like literally they're in a drawer. They're like loose in a drawer in little baggies, like Ziploc baggies. Yeah. So there's like multiple Ziploc baggies of single teeth in a drawer, throw them in a drawer. Okay. You're not alone. There's a lot of people that have a drawer. I have more like a jar. It's like a little tin that I think used to have a candle. You put them all in there and now they're all in there together kind of rattling around like a little, like a little maraca. Oh my goodness. Isn't that weird? That is weird, but I wanted to see like what are some other weird ideas of things we could do with these, these teeth because I mean, I don't, I don't know what the heck to do about this. Did you know that you can save your child's teeth for stem cells? Oh, well, there you go. That's why I have them in a drawer in case I need them for stem cells. Well, here's the problem. You better turn them in quick because, you know, the longer they sit there, probably the less good they'll be, but teeth actually are an excellent source of stem cells that could later be harvested to help your child. They get sick with some type of illness or disease or, God forbid, some kind of cancer. So there's lots of services that will bank and store stem cells for you, including storeatooth.com. Not a plug for them at all. Stop it. But guess how much it costs? I was just going to ask you. It has to be crazy expensive. Yeah, it's about a thousand to fifteen hundred bucks. A tooth? Yep. Yep. And yearly storage fees. So yeah, I mean, it could be worth it. I mean, it could be worth it, but I mean, like, if you have that extra money, it could be worth it. You're sitting on fifteen hundred dollars plus annual fees. There you go. Storage. I go. More tooth. Here's another one. Wow. I had no idea. Here's another weird one that I saw. They make these custom boxes and it's like a wooden box. I've seen this and this is creepy. It's really creepy looking and it looks like a mouth and you put the teeth, like, in the holes and then there's like a little place where you can, like, write down the date of when each tooth was lost and it's like a little mouse, it's like a mouth box thing. I don't like that at all. I don't like that at all. And there's like those creepy, like, precious moments tooth fairy, like, in the middle. No. Please don't do that. Oh, weird. So weird. I mean, no judgment if you've got a tooth box. We're not judging you. We have Ziploc baggies and candles, but the box kind of creeps me out with all the little slots for all the teeth. Okay. Here's another really creepy one. This was so crazy. You can make, did you know, Melanie, that you can make your very own one-of-a-kind custom baby tooth necklace. Okay. I did know that because here's plug to my favorite podcast ever, Wine and Crime. Lucy is really into baby teeth and, like, other people's baby teeth and, like, she has, like, a whole curiosity cabinet with, like, jars with weird stuff in it. Oh, gosh. I'm pretty sure she has a baby tooth necklace. Necklace. I have no interest in. No thinking. Well, so I pictured it as being literally, like, you know, when you're a kid and craft and you, like, thread the neat, like, your tooth is, like, a bead or something. That's what I, like, a macaroni necklace, like, a macaroni. It's not. Like, some of them are actually, I don't want to say they're pretty because it's not my taste. Okay. I'm googling it right now. You need to Google it because what they do is they'll take, like, part of the tooth but then they'll encase it and, like, you know, like a little cross or, like, a little, like a little pendant or, like, a little heart and it's like, but you don't see that it's a tooth. It's just the white that shows and it's kind of just, like, flat and white. Okay. You see it? You see it? I was, I, that is not what I was picturing. I was, yeah. Were you picturing the pasta? I was picturing the macaroni tooth on the, on the friendship bracelet Yarn Pipe Cleaner. Yeah. That's what I got. Pipe Cleaner. Well, and I'll say this. So the baby tooth necklace actually can be really awesome and a really helpful thing for folks who have lost a child. It's really kind of a way to, like, you know, remember and be sentimental about your child. No. Like, I just pulled up one on Etsy that is, like, a firm, no firm, no, oh, no, they're dangling. Ew. Oh, that is horrifying. You choose whether you want gold or silver and it's just each dangling. Dangling, dangling, I'm a little from a chain in order, in order, like, in order to front teeth and then the incisors, like, all the way out. Now, the molars are almost too big. That is horrifying. You know, if I was a dentist's wife or, like, if I was a dentist, maybe I would get, like, that, but not with real teeth, but, like, wear it as a joke. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, stop looking. I wear it like a rabbit hole now. Yeah. Now, my, like, my whole thing is going to be all thrown off. Oh, gosh. You're going to start getting ads for toothache. Ew, here's one where they cover them in silver, or gold, your toys. Ew. Oh, yeah, they do. They do that. They'll, they'll polish them and they can, like, do all different kinds of, like, colors. No. This is, like, they literally dip to them in silver and they look like teeth. Yep. Nope. They can do that. It's a whole thing. It doesn't, like, an opalescent look to them. Yeah. I see what you're talking about now. That's less terrifying. Yeah. Okay. Like, no, like, in a cross with, like, the child's name and, like, the tooth, but it's, like, it just looks like a little white square or something. You can't tell it's a tooth. And everybody is entitled to have their own choices. This is not. Oh, yeah. I know. It's like a tooth. It's, like, a molar hanging upside down from its root on a necklace. No, that is not, that is not for me, but, but that's what she's to everyone who's into that. Well, just, you know, save, save the ones you've got in the Ziploc bag in case you want to make a necklace one day, or here's another fun idea for you. You could use the baby teeth for a science experiment. I don't know, like, that feels like I'm sort of out of my league. Like, that is not something that I'm qualified to do. People actually do this. It's like a science fair project. You can, like, for your kid when they're in school, they, you could, like, put a tooth in, like, a little cup of soda, put a tooth in, in coffee, put a tooth in, like, all these different things and then see what happens to them over time and let your kid present to this science fair. I mean, I can see that, I can see myself doing that. I'm doing that before I am wearing them before he wears the best necklace. Oh, man. So hopefully those are some fun ideas to, uh, talk away for the next time the, the tooth mouse comes to visit your kiddo, the tooth mouse, not to be confused with the tooth worm. Oh, you're never fully dressed without a smile and a spotlight. Oh my goodness. Well, I had no idea how fitting or how accurate this spotlight was going to be. Our spotlight for this episode is America's tooth fairy. Wait for it. So listen, in 2000, the surgeon general issued a national call to action to address the silent epidemic of dental disease. Today, pediatric dental disease remains the most prevalent chronic disease affecting children in America. Isn't that crazy? Wow. Hmm. Who'd have thought? The tooth fairy, the national children's oral health foundation was founded in 2006 as a collaborative effort of clinicians, academics, corporate leaders and caring individuals to address the children's oral health crisis. Today, America's tooth fairy continues that this doesn't, it doesn't roll right off the tongue. But today, America's tooth fairy continues its commitment to improving children's oral health outcomes by serving as a resource provider to individuals and organizations facilitating oral health prevention and education services, as well as those providing dental treatment, especially to children in underserved populations. Thanks to the generosity of their donors, they have provided more than $25 million in donated dental products and equipment, educational materials, financial grants and programming to nonprofit dental clinics and community partners. Through that, over 8.9 million children have received oral health care and education from clinics, relying on the support of their donors. Since 2014, more than 2.4 million oral care products have been distributed to families in need thanks to their corporate partners and volunteers participating in their Smile Drive campaign. I love that. So, pretty cool initiative. Yeah. I had no idea the tooth fairy was only an American thing, so this works. Their website is it's americas tooth fairy dot org. Nice. Check it out. Want to get involved with the mayhem mama community? Find us on social media by searching for @mothermayhampodcast. If you'd like to reach out directly, drop us a line at mothermayhampodcast@gmail.com. And hey, let us know if you'd like to join us on a future episode. One last thing, nothing means more to us than when our listeners recommend our show. Please share today's episode with someone you know or leave us a rating on your podcast platform. We seriously appreciate it. (soft music) [BLANK_AUDIO]