Memories of the tooth fairy 

By Breda Nathan

Never go away for a week and get a toothache. It started off so well.   

We were going to relax and spend time exploring and recharging our batteries.  

Then I woke up with a toothache. My usual dentist was in another county. I decided I couldn’t wait to go home, so I approached a local dentist.   

He was booked up, so I called two other practices, no luck. I moved to another county.   

Here I found a dentist, but he could not extract the tooth there and then, the wrong assistant was on duty. I paid for that information and examination.   

Moving on to another medical centre I paid for another check, but he too told me I would have to make an appointment for an extraction.   

After another twenty mile journey, I found an angel dentist. He could do the job.

I sat into the chair and he injected my gum… relief spread over my body and I remembered the last time I had a tooth problem. It must have been the anaesthetic in the needle.  

My mind went back and back and back. It was the week before my first holy communion.

I was eating an apple and my front tooth loosened. It caused all kinds of alarm in the house.   

My planned photographs would be ruined, my mother and two aunts sounded frantic. My father said he liked communion pictures with gummy children, but they wouldn’t listen. I had to eat soft foods and soppy soup for the six days. Luckily ice cream was allowed, but no chocolate.  

The going rate from the tooth fairy was sixpence. If I saved my tooth for a week, it was a shilling… huge money in those days.   

I remember my brother making a tooth several times, out of a piece of a clove rock sweet.   

The fairy never noticed, or maybe she liked clove rock sweets.  

She must have been aware of the fact he had twice as many teeth as the rest of us.   

At this stage I must have been raving. I was remembering and chatting about fairies, while the dentist was still talking, and asking questions.

I was just nodding in agreement with everything he said.  

There was talk about bridges and he could have been over the river kwai. I was in a world of my own until the mirror appeared.

My mouth was on the back of my neck. Why do dentists have mirrors?   

Then the bill was produced, my mouth came back and dropped to my knees. I must have agreed to diamond fillings as well as golden bridges.

It was the biggest bill I had got since my mortgage over forty years ago.  

Three counties travelled.

Two bank accounts emptied, and no energy left… Where is the tooth fairy when you really need her?