In some cases, this baby tooth may require a trip to the dentist, which the character may not like since they are Afraid of Doctors. This usually leads to An Aesop about trusting doctors, usually by having the character be coaxed into going anyway.
The character's tooth is often loose due to some kind of injury. The tooth might also just be loose because the character is a young child. This often, but not always, overlaps with The Dentist Episode. And you can bet on the Tooth Fairy being mentioned or appearing. May result in DIY Dentistry.
Examples:
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Asian Animation
- In the Baby Shark's Big Show! episode "Baby Tooth", Baby Shark, in a fit of impatience, causes his tooth to come loose. Still impatient, he and William come up with an idea that ends up with his tooth caught up in a cave surrounded by sea snakes, leading them to enlist the help of the Tooth Fish Fairy to get it back.
Anime & Manga
- Bunny Drop: Chapter 11 is titled "The First Step," in which Rin learns how to jump rope. She becomes quite adept at it. She also discovers that one of her upper incisors is loose, but Daikichi advises her not to play with it and make it worse. The tooth eventually detaches while Daikichi and Rin are visiting Daikichi's parents. It's mentioned in the anime that the tooth will be tossed onto their roof at home for good luck.
- The Demon Girl Next Door: Chapter 85 reveals demon horns periodically fall off and get replaced by newer, stronger ones. Seiko advises Shamiko to toss her fallen horns into the air, which Momo compares to the Japanese ritual for getting rid of baby teeth.
Comic Books
- In a Little Archie storyline, the titular character presents his parents with a tooth just before going to bed. But they don't have any "tooth fairy" coins available. After Fred knocks himself out to get some change from the neighbors, they realize that the tooth in question was from their dog, Spotty.
Eastern Animation
- KikoRiki: In "Krash's New Teeth", Krash notices that one of his incisors is wobbly and fears that he won't be able to gnaw carrots, but is too scared to seek help from resident doctor, Olga. He loses it while trying to push it back in by standing upside down on his ears. When he decides to visit Olga, she explains that he just lost his first baby tooth and new one will grow back soon.
Literature
- In the Robert Munsch book Andrew's Loose Tooth, Andrew has a loose tooth and bites into an apple, which causes him a lot of pain, so his family members try to take it out in several ways. Even the dentist and the Tooth Fairy can't take it out, but at the end, Andrew's friend Louis helps him sneeze his tooth out by sprinkling pepper on his nose.
- Arthur: In "Arthur's Tooth", Arthur has his first loose tooth. Francine and the other kids make fun of him for not losing any teeth yet, so he does everything he can to get his tooth out. At the end, Francine accidentally whacks him in the face when she's pretending to be the tooth fairy and this causes his tooth to finally fall out. This was also made a TV episode, mentioned below.
- The Berenstain Bears:
- One book is about a school play of the Nativity. A subplot involves a boy playing one of the Wise Men having a loose tooth, which gives him a Speech Impediment. By the time of the actual play, the tooth has fallen out, allowing him to speak normally again.
- In "Visit the Dentist", Sister gets a loose tooth, so her parents book an appointment for her. Brother teases her about it and says the dentist will yank it out, but he ends up having to get a cavity filled in. The dentist extracts Sister's tooth and she gets money from the tooth fairy the next day. This was also made into a TV episode.
- Dad, Are You the Tooth Fairy?: Gabi loses his tooth, but he's heard that parents are the ones who put money under pillows instead of the tooth fairy, so he asks his father if this is true. His father says that fairies used to be around until technology forced them to leave, but they give parents psychic messages telling them to leave notes for kids. It's never revealed if this is true or not, but Gabi decides to believe it.
- Franklin: In "Franklin and the Tooth Fairy", Bear loses a tooth. Franklin is confused because he doesn't have any teeth (being a turtle and all) until the others explain the concept of the tooth fairy. When Franklin hears that losing teeth means you're growing up, he feels left out, so he puts a white rock under his pillow to fool the tooth fairy. This doesn't fool her at all, much to his disappointment, but his parents say he's still growing up with or without teeth.
- Freckleface Strawberry: In "Loose Tooth!", Freckleface has a loose tooth and she is told that if she manages to get it out at school, she'll get a necklace from the nurse. At the end of the book, she succeeds.
- Horrid Henry: In "Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy", Henry feels left out because the only one in his class who hasn't lost any teeth yet, so he unsuccessfully tries to fool the tooth fairy into thinking he's lost a tooth. At the end, his mother hands him an apple and he swallows one of his teeth by accident.
- Junie B. Jones: In "Toothless Wonder", Junie B. has a loose tooth and she's worried that she might look like Sheldon's Uncle Lou, who lost most of his teeth due to poor dental care. She feels better once her classmates are proud of her (besides May), but she's still suspicious about the tooth fairy. At the end of the book, her baby brother Ollie grows his first tooth and the overjoyed Junie B. concludes that the tooth fairy gave her tooth to him.
- Little Princess: In "I Want My Tooth", a story featured in both the book series and the TV series, the Princess gets her first loose tooth and enjoys playing with it until she loses it, and then it goes missing. In the book version, she never finds it (but believes her brother, who grew a new tooth, stole it), but in the cartoon episode, the adults find it.
- Llama Llama: In "Loose Tooth Drama", Llama loosens one of his teeth when he's having lunch. His friends and grandparents offer suggestions as to how to take it out and Llama is curious about the tooth fairy. Later, it falls out and he can't find it, but his mother has him write a letter to the tooth fairy so she knows it's there and then it's revealed that the tooth was right by his bed the whole time.
- The plot of the picture book "One Morning in Maine", the sequel to Make Way for Ducklings, revolves around Sal's loose tooth, including learning about animals that do and do not have baby teeth.
- One book in the children's educational Oxford Reading Tree series has Kipper come down with a loose tooth. The other characters offer to pull it out for him, much to his chagrin. Eventually, he ends up swallowing the tooth after an accident that caused him to get hit by a swing. His family apologise for it by each providing him a small amount of money, ending with a comedic moment of Kipper imagining the Tooth Fairy being annoyed at her thunder being stolen.
- Pinkalicious: In "Silverlicious", Pinkalicious has a loose tooth and when she steals Peter's cookie and takes a bite out of it, her tooth falls out at the cost of being able to taste anything sweet. She spends the rest of the book trying to contact Tootheetina the Tooth Fairy, only for other holiday figures to send her candy. At the end, she finds out the reason she's been unable to taste anything sweet is that she's been rude and ungrateful to the holiday figures.
- Roys Bedoys: In "Roys Bedoys and the Tooth Fairy", Roys loses his first tooth and is told about the Tooth Fairy. He puts the tooth under his pillow, but his brother Loys gets money instead, so he writes to the Tooth Fairy saying she made a mistake. It's left ambiguous as to whether the Tooth Fairy exists or if it was one of the parents.
Live-Action TV
- Barney & Friends: In "The Dentist Makes Me Smile", Shawn has a baby tooth and is afraid that it'll fall out. This leads Barney and the kids to learn about keeping your teeth clean and going to the dentist.
- The Noddy Shop has the episode "The Tooth Fairy", in which Truman has a loose tooth and learns all about the tooth fairy, played by Carol Kane.
- In the Yo Gabba Gabba! episode "Teeth", DJ Lance Rock recalls the day Muno lost his baby teeth. He is later paid a visit from the tooth fairy.
Web Animation
- Shut Up! Cartoons: In the Smosh Babies episode "THE TOOTH FAIRY", Anthony knocks his tooth loose after he runs into a gate and pulls it out himself. The kids all try to steal it so that the Tooth Fairy can give them money, but in the end, Bark-Bark eats it and when he craps it out, Anthony has to take it out of the pile.
- The Star Wars: Galactic Pals episode "Gamorrean" features a Gamorrean youngling that has been very grumpy and bitey, ruining the fun of the other younglings and chewing on items. It turns out he has a loose baby tusk that has been bothering him. Using a bit of food, Miree manages to help him pry the tusk out, calming him down.
Web Video
- The Greatest Freakout Ever: In episode 30, Stephen and Jack's niece is complaining incessantly about her loose tooth while they're all at the pool, so Stephen shuts her up by forcefully yanking it out himself. His older sister goes into Mama Bear mode and pulls him underwater for it.
Western Animation
- Abby Hatcher: In "Abby's Afraid", Abby gets her first loose tooth on the exact same day she's supposed to see Dr. Anna, and she's nervous that Anna will try to yank it out, so she does everything she can to avoid her. By the end, however, her tooth falls out by itself.
- American Dragon: Jake Long: Jake's little sister Haley is about to lose her first tooth, but since it is a dragon tooth, it holds mystical powers. A villain named Dr. Diente steals the Tooth Fairy's wand and tries to abduct Haley to seize the tooth.
- Arthur:
- In "Arthur's Tooth", Arthur is the only one who hasn't lost a baby tooth yet. When he does get a loose tooth, he tries to make it pop out as quickly as possible.
- Downplayed in "DW Tricks the Tooth Fairy". Arthur loses a tooth. DW doesn't want to lose any of hers until she sees a commercial for a My Fluffy Unicorn toy. She is determined to get money for it by losing a tooth, so she gets a shark tooth from the museum to scam the tooth fairy. Arthur puts money under her pillow instead and DW declares that she's going to try it again, much to Arthur's dismay.
- Baby Looney Tunes: In "To Tell the Tooth", Bugs and later Taz lose their teeth. Daffy feels envious because he supposedly doesn't have any teethnote , so he tries to steal their teeth to scam the tooth fairy. When Granny catches him in the act, she informs him that there's also a "feather fairy" who takes young birds' feathers when they molt.
- Bob's Burgers: In "Sleeping with the Frenemy", Gene is about to lose his last baby tooth, which Linda is eager to get because she's been collecting them. When it finally comes off, it falls on the beach and gets taken by a seagull. Gene tries to get a replacement tooth to give Linda, but when the time comes to pretend to lose it, he accidentally swallows the fake tooth. Linda, however, admits that it wasn't such a big deal, and she already misplaced a lot of the old teeth. In the very end of the episode, Gene sees the seagull vomit out the tooth.
- The Bubble Guppies episode "A Tooth on the Looth!" centers on Deema having a wiggly tooth. While on a field trip to the dentist, it falls out. She is later given a coin by the tooth fairy (actually Oona).
- The Casagrandes: In "Tooth or Consequences", Adelaide loses a tooth when she and Carl crash into each other, so Carl tells her about El Ratón, the Latin American version of the Tooth Fairy. He doesn't come due to Bobby scaring off some micenote , so Bobby disguises himself as El Ratón to give Adelaide the money. As it turns out, El Ratón was actually stuck in a family reunion, and the episode ends with Bobby losing one of his own teeth.
- El Chavo Animado: In "Los dientes de leche", Chavo has a loose tooth and wants to get rich off the tooth fairy, who in this case is a mouse. He and his friends devise many plans to extract the tooth, but he ends up swallowing it.
- Craig of the Creek has the episode "Jessica Shorts" with one of the shorts being Jessica trying to lose the tooth.
- The Cuphead Show!: While not actually featuring any lost teeth per se, the episode "Handle with Care" is very similar in plot. Mugman accidentally breaks the handle on his mughead and worries that he'll be seen as a freak (a "Bowlboy"), he and Cuphead try to reattach it, and eventually Elder Kettle tells Mugman that he just lost his "baby handle" and that he should put it under his pillow in order to get a visit from the Handle Fairy, who then takes the baby handle and makes a "man handle" grow out in its place. This is, similar to the Tooth Fairy, just a cover for Elder Kettle to take handles that Mugman (and Cuphead, who wanted his man handle quickly and broke his off) put under his pillow and glue it back on in his sleep).
- Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "Floss Your Ed", Ed's last baby tooth is about to come loose, and the whole cul-de-sac joins in on trying to get it out. Of course, Eddy wants the tooth for himself so he can get money from the tooth fairy, and in the midst of the struggle, instead of Ed's tooth, he accidentally pulls out his own tooth. At the end of the episode, Ed ends up eating both his and Eddy's teeth.
- The Fairly OddParents!:
- In "The Zappys!", Timmy's buck teeth are loose on the same night he, Cosmo and Wanda are invited up to Fairy World to attend an awards banquet. Cosmo and Wanda win an award, but Jorgen tries to take it from them in a tug-of-war battle, the award hits Timmy in the face, causing his tooth to fall out. When Timmy asks for his tooth back, the Tooth Fairy takes it due to her very strict no-return policy. In the end, Jorgen gives Timmy his teeth!
- In "Teeth for Two", Timmy's buckteeth have finally come loose. Since they are apparently worth as much as a diamond, Jorgen Von Strangle wants to use them to propose to the Tooth Fairy.
- Handy Manny: In "Julieta's Loose Tooth", Julieta loses her tooth and it ends up falling down her sink's drain, requiring Manny and the tools to retrieve it.
- Henry Hugglemonster: In "Fangs Out", one of Henry's fangs becomes loose. However, when it falls out, he is unable to roar and can only whistle, much to his dismay. He refuses to roar in front of anyone else because he's afraid he'll be laughed at, but when he accidentally whistles in front of his friends, they find it cool.
- Higglytown Heroes: In "Twinkle Tooth", Twinkle loses her first baby tooth and accidentally drops it down the drain of the bathroom sink while washing it. The featured hero is a plumber who helps her retrieve it.
- I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown: A minor example. While Rerun was spending time with Snoopy's cousin Spike, Rerun suddenly lost a baby tooth.
Rerun: A tooth, a tooth. I just lost another tooth. I must be getting old.
- Jorel's Brother: In "A Fantástica Fábrica de Refrigerantes", Ana Catarina has a loose tooth that falls off after she bites a hard apple. Even though she's by far the prettiest girl in class, Mr. Sprok calls her hideous and horrendous just because one of her teeth is now missing. Later, she's revealed to have put the tooth back using a prothesis, explaining why the gap didn't appear again.
- The Land Before Time: Chomper looses a tooth and gets scared because Cera’s dad says he’ll fall apart. The gang tracks down Ruby, who’s off somewhere with Tria, with Chomper hoping the tooth can be put back in. He ultimately loses it, but when they locate Ruby, she explains that sharpteeth are always losing teeth and it’s normal. This is a real life process for many reptiles and sharks.
- In the Little Bear episode "Little Bear's Tooth", Little Bear's first tooth comes loose. His friends come up with insane methods to extract the tooth.
- In the Max and Ruby episode "Ruby's Loose Tooth", Ruby literally loses a tooth. Eventually, she discovers that the tooth was in a very crunchy muffin.
- Mr. Pickles: In "Loose Tooth", Tommy has a loose tooth, so he and Mr. Pickles try to find ways to take it out. He later gets it out by biting into a lollipop supplied to him by some pedophiles, who claim to know where the tooth fairy lives. Mr. Pickles saves him by killing the creepers and selling their blood. He also disguises a scarecrow as the tooth fairy to make Tommy think she gave him all that money.
- Muppet Babies (1984): In "Dental Hijinks", Fozzie has a loose tooth. However, he and the other babies are afraid of the dentist, so they try to pull it out themselves so he won't go there.
- Muppet Babies (2018): In "Tooth and Consequences", Animal has lost a tooth, but he's feeling down because the tooth fairy hasn't given him anything, so he and the kids decide to visit her. As it turns out, the tooth fairy is actually Rizzo, and Animal forgot to put his tooth under his pillow and he had it in his pocket the whole time. Once Rizzo takes it, he gives Animal a painting he made himself.
- In the Oggy and the Cockroaches episode "Tooth Good to be True", one of the Cockroaches' antics causes Oggy's tooth to fall out. After seeing Oggy get money out of this, Joey goes through extreme and painful circumstances to get some money of his own.
- PAW Patrol:
- In "Pups Save a Toof", Chase accidentally knocks his fang loose while he's playing tug of war with the others. Ryder suggests taking him to the dentist to have his fang extracted, which Chase is less than enthused about. After Chase and Alex decide to see the dentist, Chase gets his fang taken out. The next day, Chase knocks his other fang loose after he bites into a bone. Cue the "Everybody Laughs" Ending.
- In "Pups Save a Lost Tooth", Alex's tooth ends up embedded in a carrot after he bites into it, but a series of mishaps results in it going around town, so Alex and Mr. Porter get the PAW Patrol to get it back for them.
- Peppa Pig: In "The Tooth Fairy", Peppa's baby tooth falls out. She tries to stay up all night so she can see the tooth fairy.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): "Moral Decay", which serves as a Dentist Episode at the end. After Buttercup accidentally punches out Bubbles's tooth, she's remorseful until she hears that Bubbles will get money from the tooth fairy. The purpose behind this was to save up for a new punching bag, and after failing several times to knock out more of Bubbles' teeth, followed by a scolding from the Professor, Buttercup spends the rest of the episode doing this to the villains and monsters, even when they're not doing anything. Blossom and Bubbles agree Buttercup needs to be taught a lesson after they learn what she was doing behind their backs and all the villains she attacked come to beat the crap out of her, and a good chunk of her teeth get knocked out as well. Moreover, the Professor uses Buttercup's secret stash of coin to pay off her dental bills.
- Rugrats: In "Tooth or Dare", Susie's older brother Edwin has lost one of his front teeth and received money from the tooth fairy. Angelica wants some money of her own, so she tries to steal Chuckie's teeth, only to knock out one of her own by running into a wall. She's excited until she only receives a dime.
- Seven Little Monsters: "The Whole Tooth" concerns Six having a loose tooth and worrying about it falling out before her ballet recital.
- The first act of The Simpsons episode "Fat Man and Little Boy" is about Bart trying to pull out his last baby tooth, since he hears the tooth fairy pays triple for the last one. He wakes up to find the tooth fairy has made a donation in his name to United Way, which Marge explains as the tooth fairy seeing it was his last tooth and deciding he wasn't a little boy any more, causing him to have a very early mid-life crisis.
- In the South Park episode "Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000", Cartman comes up with a plan to combine everyone's lost teeth so the Tooth Fairy will provide them with enough money to purchase a Sega Dreamcast. However, Stan and Kyle have lost all their baby teeth, but not Kenny. Cartman tries to get teeth out of his mouth by having Timmy pull one out with a string tied to his wheelchair.
- The Smurfs (1981): In "Sassette's Tooth", Sassette loses a tooth for the first time, so she puts it under her pillow after Papa tells her about the Tooth Fairy. However, the Tooth Fairy is captured by Gargamel, so the Smurfs have to save her. In the end, Slouchy and Snappy say that their own teeth are getting loose, too.
- Super Why!: In "The Story of the Tooth Fairy", Whyatt loses his first tooth, but he's rather reluctant to give it up to the Tooth Fairy, so he and the other Super Readers decide to ask her if he can keep it. She agrees to let him keep his tooth if he writes her a note to remind her.
- In the WordWorld episode "Shark's First Loose Tooth", Shark loses a tooth for the first time. Duck tries to help him fall asleep so the tooth fairy can come.
- In the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! episode "Tooth or Dare", Daizy has a loose tooth, but the Tooth Fairy is on vacation. Wubbzy, Widget, and Walden devise a plan so that Daizy gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy anyway.
