After Genes2Teens posted my article about when kids lose their baby teeth, I was contacted by parents who had questions from their toothless children about the Tooth Fairy that they didn’t know how to answer. Many people are familiar with the Tooth Fairy, but for some, the Tooth Fairy is a bit of a mystery. Just like you, I had tons of questions, so I decided to track down a tooth fairy to get the answers. By pure serendipity, my son lost one of his molars last week, so I reached out to a tooth fairy by leaving a letter under his pillow with his tooth, and got a response from Tinka Glittercup, a level 3 Tooth Fairy who works in the Sky Blossom branch. Below is the transcript of our interview.

Brandi Cowan: What exactly is a tooth fairy?

Tinka Glittercup: I am a tooth fairy, of course! But all tooth fairies are simply fairies who are tasked with collecting the teeth that children have outgrown. When children take good care of the teeth, we will leave them a shiny coin or trinket under their pillow as payment for looking after the tooth. Some branches leave different rewards and it really just depends on the tooth fairies working in your area.

Brandi: I know this may seem silly, but is a very common question we hear, is the tooth fairy real?

Tinka: What a silly question! You are talking to me so I must be real. Right?! As long as children still believe, we will always be here.

Brandi: What does the tooth fairy look like? Do they all look like you, Tinka?

Tinka: Well, just like you big people, there are many tooth fairies out there. We all look a little different and dress in various clothes depending on what branch we work in. I work in the Sky Blossom branch so our dresses or suits are sky blue, with glitter, and pink blossoms sewn on the edges. But if you work in Sun Leaf you wear yellow with autumn leaves sewn in. In Moon Raven they wear white, with black feathers decorating their outfits. In general though, we are all much smaller than you big folk. Many of us have earned our wings to fly, and sometimes big ones say we glow.

Brandi: Are tooth fairies magical?

Tinka: What you guys call magic is really just as normal for a fairy as breathing. We can practice our tricks and get stronger, but we all have some level of “magic.” Most of the time we use this magic to slip through tiny cracks to get in the house, or to lift up a big one’s sleepy head to get under pillows. Some of our more expert fairies can even use it to get teeth that have been lost down sink drains or accidentally swallowed!

Brandi: What does the tooth fairy do with the teeth?

Tinka: This really depends a lot from place to place, but most of the teeth that are well looked after go to a new owner. You see, these teeth are only temporary to help you chew until your big ones grow in. So when you lose a baby tooth, we take them back to Headquarters, give them a good scrub, and fix up any imperfections. Then we take the shiny tooth to a young baby and they receive their first tooth. If you have a younger baby in the family you may have noticed they gain a tooth, just after you lost one! If the tooth was not looked after well, then our job is a little harder as it needs to be ground up with fairy dust to create a brand new tooth. Some fairies can be cross about this, and end up giving you less for the tooth. Every now and then we also get a note from a parent who asks to keep their children’s teeth. If this is the case, we will come and pay for the tooth that was well looked after, remove the magic dust from the tooth, and then leave the tooth’s shell for your parent to keep.

Brandi: Where does a tooth fairy live?

Tinka: For fairy safety I cannot tell you the exact location of where we live, but I can say that it varies from place to place. Usually our branch name gives it away a little, so in Sky Blossom we live in the great blossom tree at the very top where it touches the sky. It is far too high for the big ones to see us, and we can conduct our fairy duties unobstructed.

Brandi: Can you describe what a typical day in the life of a tooth fairy is like?

Tinka: We tend to go to bed at sunrise and sleep until mid-morning. Then we get up and eat blossom dew, before heading into Headquarters for tooth cleansing. Any teeth that are in good shape we clean, repair, and recharge with fairy dust. Any teeth that are rotten or in bad condition are ground down, which is really hard work! We then mix them with fresh fairy dust to form new teeth. Then at night we go out on assignment. In some houses we collect teeth and leave coins for children. In other houses we visit a baby and give them a new tooth. Once our nightly rounds are done, we head back to the great blossom tree to sleep.

Brandi: Many people want to know how old is the tooth fairy? I suspect you will all vary in age so how old is the oldest tooth fairy?

Tinka: You are right. We all vary in age. We also count our age based on the seasons and not years like you big ones do. I am pretty young for a tooth fairy and I was grown from the great blossom tree about 100 seasons ago. The oldest fairy in Sky Blossom is Odette Nettlewisp and she is 316 seasons old, but she just oversees activities and no longer collects teeth herself. Currently the oldest tooth fairy lives in Star Shadow and he is 440 seasons!

Brandi: What is the tooth fairy’s phone number?

Tinka: As you can imagine, we don’t normally use phones. Most of the time big ones contact us by putting children’s teeth in the magic pouches. But we know that sometimes these get lost, so parents can always contact us by leaving a letter like you did, or if you are having trouble teaching your kids good dental hygiene, we offer tips over the phone at 1-916-446-1310.

Brandi: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us. Do you have any last words of advice for the children?

Tinka: Please, please, please take good care of those teeth! We really want to save as many as we can for new children to use. Also try not to worry if you do lose it in an unexpected place, as you would be surprised how resourceful we can be!