Inside: Why I choose not to save my child’s baby teeth and why you probably don’t need to worry about it either.
I was just about to crawl into bed last night, but as I set a glass of water on my nightstand I made a startling discovery…
There, in a haphazardly sealed plastic bag was a tooth.
Why I Won’t Save My Child’s Baby Teeth
The tooth itself wasn’t a surprise — my oldest daughter had lost one of her front baby teeth a few days ago. The fact that it was still here was.
Admittedly being a bit squeamish, I didn’t handle the Tooth Fairy duties on this occasion, and I guess I had assumed that my husband had thrown it away when he made the swap.
I mean, why wouldn’t you…right?
I carried the bag into the kitchen and waved it at my husband: “Why is there a tooth on my nightstand?!” (It even still had a bit of blood or the root or whatever that red stuff is stuck to it!)
Anyways, it was gross, so I chucked it into the kitchen trash can.
But instead of getting a hero’s thank-you for preserving the mystery of the Tooth Fairy (it was laying in plain sight after all), my husband gasped as I threw the tooth away.
He was upset. He had wanted to keep it.
Why did my husband want to keep our daughter’s baby tooth?
Because science?
Stem cells?
NOPE.
It was purely sentimental.
My husband, who likes to pretend that he is stronger than all of us “sensitive” weenies out there, was sad at getting rid of a baby tooth. (Like there won’t be a dozen more!)
“Well, you didn’t seriously expect to keep every single one of our girls’ teeth did you? No way am I having a bunch of bloody old teeth laying around!” (Me)
Now I sounded like the insensitive one!
So why not just keep them?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually a very sentimental person. My favorite gift is actually a handwritten card with a heartfelt message, and I keep them forever!
But I just can’t see a good reason to save my child’s baby teeth!
Related: How to make brushing teeth fun for kids.
Answer: the science just isn’t quite there yet.
There’s talk of using teeth to regrow stem cells and I’ve seen quite a few articles shared on social media imploring parents to “save you child’s teeth because you could save their life!”
But from what I can tell, many of those articles are simply scare tactics designed to guilt you into purchasing pricy tooth storage plans.
Currently, the technology isn’t fully developed and shipping and storing a child’s baby teeth “just in case” is very expensive with no guaranteed reward. In fact, scientists are still divided on whether banking baby teeth for the purpose of harvesting stem cells later will ever be a realistic option.
So don’t worry about it yet.
Also, if you’ve been hanging onto your child’s old teeth at home, waiting for science to catch up, you might as well let ’em go. Stem cells in teeth are only viable for a VERY short time, so any teeth you might have lying around the house already are worthless for that purpose.
And to each their own, but I’m sure not using baby teeth to make a creepy keepsake or gluing them in the girls’ baby books!
So relax, let the Tooth Fairy do her thing, and take those dead baby teeth away to wherever the tooth fairy takes them. wink wink
As for our house…
If my husband really wants to keep future baby teeth, he can take care of it and hide them in his sock drawer or something.
As long as I don’t know or stumble across bloody teeth I’ll be ok.
But for now, we’ll focus on taking care of the teeth we have…in our mouths!
Your Turn:
Do you save your kid’s baby teeth? If so, what do you do with them? I’d love to hear so maybe my husband and I can come up with a compromise!
You might also like:
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Kjell says
My mom kept ask of our teeth, and later gave them to us. I thought it was kind of gross.
I do not keep my kids teeth. There’s no point.
kassichapman says
Gross! Nope! We aren’t going to do this! There are other things we can keep: little beanie from the hospital, baby blankets, onesies, pictures, wrist bands from hospital, one piece of clothing or art project from each year. But no, not teeth.
Stacey aka the Soccer Mom says
Yep! There are so many other keepsakes besides teeth!
Kim says
It’s funny that people are grossed out by a baby tooth LOL
In a society that thinks we can and should just throw anything “away” I say keep it…maybe even mix them in some concrete when you make a craft.
I’m more creeped out at baby teeth ending up in a landfill…
Stacey aka the Soccer Mom says
To each their own 🙂 I know some parents who keep baby teeth for sentimental value, but it’s just not my thing.