For 20 years, Dr. Purva Merchant has been answering letters from gaptoothed children and their parents — roughly 6,000 in all. “Happy growing up,” she typically replies.
By Eliza Shapiro in the NYT (thanks to Mary M.)
The letter looked like a ransom note, each jagged letter traced over and over for emphasis.
The message got straight to the point: “I KNOW IT’S YOU MOM.”
A fourth-grader named Caden had begun to harbor suspicions about the supposedly magical being who left cash under his pillow after each baby tooth fell out.
There had been inconsistencies in the tooth fairy’s behavior: After Caden lost his first tooth, he woke up to a crisp $100 bill.
His mother, Ashley Lee, a chiropractor in California, quickly came to regret that initial gift, delivered in an excited rush, not accounting for the dozens of teeth to come.
For his next teeth, Caden received less, and the variations in bills raised questions in his mind. And so he wrote the accusatory letter.
Now, Ms. Lee wanted to keep him a believer.
So she took a shot in the dark, and dashed off a note to what she figured was a made-up “toothfairy” email address, not knowing if anyone would receive it. “Caden thinks it is me giving him money for exchanging the tooth,” she wrote, asking the tooth fairy to reply and prove him wrong.
Her hope — silly, sweet and a little desperate — was that an “official” email from the tooth fairy might somehow persuade Caden.
Dr. Purva Merchant was sitting in her office at a pediatric dental practice in Seattle when Ms. Lee’s email arrived. It was roughly the six-thousandth such email she’d received in the past 20 years.
She knew exactly what to do:
Dear Caden,
I am writing to let you know that I have received email notification of your baby tooth that was lost, how exciting! I will stop by with a special surprise for your tooth. Remember to take very good care of your new teeth by brushing and flossing every night. Happy growing up!
Dr. Merchant became the tooth fairy by accident. (continue on page 2 or here)