We Teach Our Children That Losing a Tooth Is About the Tooth Fairy

What Losing Mine Taught Me Today

When our children lose a tooth, we often turn it into a transaction.

A small celebration, a visit from the tooth fairy, a few dollars under the pillow. It is light and playful and sweet. But today, as I lost a tooth of my own, I realized how much more there is in that moment that we rarely name.

After the procedure, the dentist placed my tooth in my hand. We stood there for a moment, looking at it together. This small part of my body had worked faithfully for years and was now finished.

What I felt was not discomfort or loss. It was reverence.

That tooth had helped me digest thousands of meals. It had quietly done its work, turning food into nourishment, day after day, without ever being acknowledged. Only when it was removed did I truly pause to appreciate it.

The dentist mentioned that if I washed it with bleach, the living matter would fall away, leaving only mineral behind. The phrase living matter stayed with me. There had once been life moving through this. Blood. Nerve. Intelligence.

Modern technology made the infection visible. Modern medicine made healing possible. And yet, the moment itself felt deeply human. Vulnerable. Grounded. A reminder that we are not separate from our bodies. We are flesh and bone, water and time.

This tooth served faithfully. And when it could no longer serve, it let go.

It made me think about how we talk to our children when they lose a tooth. What if, alongside the magic and the money, we also taught appreciation? What if we paused to honor what that tooth helped them do, how it chewed their food, supported their growth, and played a role in their becoming?

That simple shift could change how children relate to their bodies. It could transform tooth loss from something to get through into something to understand. From a transaction into a moment of awareness.

Losing my tooth today reminded me that care begins with connection. And sometimes, the smallest moments are the ones that teach us how to honor what sustains us.