It's a right of passage that some kids take well, others, not so much.
Julie Waggoner, 29, of Marietta said that she began preparing daughter Kaitlyn, 6, for the arrival of the Tooth Fairy when she was about 2 1/2 by reading a book.
But when the first bottom baby tooth started to fall out, it wasn't exactly a great experience.
"She was terrified. She wouldn't let me touch it even though it was hanging by a thread," Waggoner said.
The going rate for a tooth in the Waggoner household is one dollar, which is a far cry from when mom Julie was a little girl. "I used to get a quarter," she said.
But this past Christmas brought two very special visitors when Kaitlyn lost a second top front tooth on Christmas Eve.
"Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy both came in one night," Waggoner said.
As a mom of two teen boys, ages 15 and 18, Darla Van Horn of Williamstown, has fond memories of when the tooth fairy used to visit her kids.
"One was 5 and one was 6 and, at first, they used to get a quarter," she said. "When they got older, it was a dollar."
The kids were prepared for the Tooth Fairy thanks to their kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Jones.
"They made little pillows with pockets in them for the tooth," Van Horn said.
"It was kind of like Christmas, them waiting up to try to see the Tooth Fairy. But that made it very hard for the Tooth Fairy to get in there."
The story of the Tooth Fairy, as wih many childhood icons, is rooted in many deep traditions and different cultures have their own ways of dealing with lost teeth. But the Tooth Fairy as we know her in Western culture stems from a European tradition of burying baby teeth that fell out.
This combination of ancient international traditions has evolved into one that is distinct to Anglo-Saxon and Latin American cultures among others, according to Wikipedia.
When a child's 6th tooth falls out it is customary for the tooth fairy to slip a gift or money under the child's pillow, but to leave the tooth as a reward for the child growing strong.
The 2009 results of an annual poll conducted by Securian Dental company reports a decrease in the current average "gift" U.S. children receive from the Tooth Fairy. The average of $1.88 per tooth is down from last year's gift of $2.09 - a 10 percent decrease.
"It seems the Tooth Fairy's not immune to the economy - but she still did much better than the stock market," explains Dani Fjelstad, chief financial officer for DeCare Dental, administrator for Securian Dental plans. "Compared to the Tooth Fairy's 10 percent decrease, the Dow Jones decreased 32 percent over the same measurement period and global indices performed even worse."
Tooth Fairy gift amounts range from a low of five cents to a high of $40 per tooth. The downward trend in Tooth Fairy gifts appears to be driven by a decrease in the number of five-dollar gifts and an increase in one dollar gifts.
According to the American Dental Association, the number of primary teeth humans have is 20. Those teeth begin to fall out around age 5 in most children to mkae way for the 32 permanent adult teeth.
The teeth usually find their way out on their own without any problem but some issues can arise, requiring a trip to the dentist.
"Normally everything comes out pretty good," said Dr. Wes Nida, "but sometimes the erupting tooth can be out of position, leading to problems down the road.
While some parents, like Van Horn, feel a little bit of sadness that their children are growing so quickly, Nida's experience with the kids has been that they aren't afraid or sad in the least.
"Most kids are so excited about losing the tooth (and getting a gift) that it really isn't an issue," he said.
