When I was about 3 years old I lost my first tooth. My mother had taken me over to a neighbors house for a bbq and play date. My little buddy and I decided it would be a good idea to climb a small apple tree in his backyard and we proceeded to reach for the top, so to speak. All was fine until I lost my footing and came tumbling down. In my infinite wisdom (as a 3 year old) I decided it would be a good idea to break my fall by biting on to a branch. In one way this had the desired effect as I did not break any bones. It did however have the consequence of ripping my front tooth out of its normal position and reorienting it at a 90 degree angle in relation to my other teeth. The screams of a small child coupled with lots of blood gushing from there face and a 12 foot drop to the ground would be enough to send any mother into action, my mom was no different as she immediately assessed the situation, came to the conclusion that pliers were needed to extract the tooth and proceeded to do her Carl Lewis impersonation as she bolted for home to get the equipment required to turn into MOM DDS. This is how I learned about the tooth fairy which was the only good thing to come out of the whole experience. The nimble little sprite floated into my room and did the exchange that night, taking my front tooth and leaving a shiny quarter in its place.

My son (now 9) is quite familiar with the tooth fairy experience. He had his first 4 teeth by the time he was 6 months old (much to my wife's dismay as she breast fed him) and did not look back. By 6 he had been visited by the good fairy at least 4 times. My daughter, now 6 has been waiting with great anticipation for her first fairy visit and until this week, I'm sure it seemed to her that the day would never come, that is until Wednesday. When I picked her up from school she was very excited to show me a tooth that was moving back and fourth on her lower gum like a metronome. I suggested to her that she could probably give it a light tug and it would come out. But being a new experience she was very reluctant to do so. Enter my son, Jack DDS. When he saw the tooth he immediately started to offer numerous suggestions on how to remove it.  When the kids arrived home the quickly went upstairs to play...dentist. Of course my son was the dentist and within minutes the tooth was out and he was telling her about the good fairy and what was required to turn the tooth into cold hard cash. He also told her I was the tooth fairy at which point my daughter yelled to me. "dad, is the tooth fairy real?" to which I replied "yes" and in a triumphant tone she yelled to her brother "SEE, Jack" My first tooth was worth .25 cents, that was 37 years ago. My daughter's first tooth was worth $10.00, Must be the fluoride in the water increasing the value.