Wondering what to do with baby teeth after they fall out? So are many other parents! Discover saving baby teeth ideas like baby teeth jewelry and saving baby teeth for stem cells!
If you’re looking for what to do with your child’s teeth, you have options, and we’ll dive into them below! Saving those first teeth is something that some people do as a family tradition while others have different reasons!
Let’s look at why a growing number of adults are saving child’s baby teeth after they fall out.
Things To Do with Baby Teeth after They Fall Out
When my daughter lost her first tooth, on Thanksgiving Day, at our friend’s house, pulling it out herself, at just six years old, we were all so excited!
Losing baby teeth (also called milk teeth) becomes an obsession for kids around the ages of 5-8. Kids compare how many they lose, show off wiggly ones, and share what the tooth fairy brought them.
And it’s all in good fun. It’s a fun and exciting milestone for kids!
As a parent, as the “tooth fairy,” we are left not only figuring out what is a great tooth fairy gift, making sure we don’t forget to put it under their pillow the same night they lose the tooth, but also have to figure what to do with baby teeth!
Do we keep the lost teeth? Do we pitch them? Where do we store them and how?
Every family will have a different answer, but there are some common things people do.
What to Do with Baby Teeth
Listed below you find 14 different things to do with your child’s baby teeth. Do whatever appeals most to you.
1. Throw Baby Teeth Away
When I asked people what they do with baby teeth on my Facebook page and personal profile, a majority of people said they throw them in the trash.
The reason many people did this was because they considered lost teeth to be gross. Second, they couldn’t imagine that someday their child would actually want to still have them! Some expressed horror at receiving their own teeth from their parents as adults.
2. Put Baby Teeth in a Drawer
Others said they simply toss the lost baby teeth into a plastic Ziplock bag and stash it in their underwear or sock drawer, mostly because they didn’t really know where to put it, or have a place to put them!
Some are smart and at least remember to also slip in a piece of paper with the tooth, or write on the outside of the bag the child’s name, what day they lost it, and what tooth it was.
3. Saving Baby Teeth for Stem Cells
Many scientists and health advocates encourage parents to keep their child’s baby teeth because they contain an excellent source of mesenchymal stem cells which could later be harvested and used to help your child, should they get sick with certain cancers, illnesses or diseases.
In fact, there are sites and services that will bank and store your child’s stem cells for you, like Store-A-Tooth.com. However, such a service is NOT cheap.
Store-A-Tooth costs $849-$1749 (payment plans available) along with yearly storage fees of $120. Other sites charge similarly.
But, stem cells harvested from baby teeth could help save your child’s life someday. So, it could totally be worth it.
4. Bury the Baby Teeth
Akin to throwing out the baby teeth, some parents decide to bury their kids baby teeth.
Why? I’m not exactly sure.
I guess if we bury bodies under the ground, burying teeth makes just as much sense. And works toward completing that circle of life thing.
5. Put Baby Teeth in a Box
Similar to putting baby teeth in a drawer, some parents put lost baby teeth into a jewelry box or porcelain box of some kind. With or without a baggy.
Some people actually buy a special Tooth Fairy box for holding teeth, or other baby teeth box, like the following:
- Simple Wood Tooth Fairy Box
- Baby Face Wood Souvenir Box
- Rectangular Baby Tooth Box
- Baby Tooth Shaped Keepsake Wood Box
6. Store Teeth in an Old Medicine Bottle
A unique place to put them is into an old medicine bottle. If you have multiple kids, be sure to label each bottle with each child’s name.
Really, be sure to label that the medicine bottle contains baby teeth rather than medicine, so you don’t accidentally swallow a tooth you thought was aspirin…
If you’re looking for alternatives to a medicine bottle, here are a few “prettier” options:
7. Create a Custom Baby Teeth Necklace
Some people want to not only keep a child’s baby teeth, but wear them proudly around their neck too!
This may be especially true for those who have lost a child, or are otherwise very sentimental about lost baby teeth, and yearn for those days when their child was a baby.
The company Tooth Fairy Designs takes baby teeth and creates beautiful “tooth-stones” from them. Through their patented process, they machine grind the tooth to a highly-polished gemstone-like configuration and mount it in a precious metal article, like a necklace, earrings, or pendant.
Tooth Fairy Designs are the highest quality, custom jewelry articles that transcend simple self-adornment to represent expressions of devotion.
You can take 15% off any Tooth Fairy Designs item with my promo code FAGANS15.
There are also several people on Etsy that will make Baby Teeth Necklaces. You can get them in the following styles:
- Baby Teeth Glass Vial Pendant Necklace
- Large Flower Sterling Silver Pendant Necklace
- Custom Made Crystal-Like Baby Tooth Pendant
8. Create Custom Baby Teeth Jewelry
In case necklaces aren’t your thing, there are still other ways to wear a child’s lost baby teeth!
Tooth Fairy Designs also sells some earrings and bracelet charms made with your child’s teeth!
Again, use promo code FAGANS15 to take 15% off any of their custom tooth jewelry.
If you want other options, here are some more jewelry made from baby teeth ideas I found on Etsy:
- Sterling Silver Molar Tooth Ring
- Double Molar Sterling Silver Ring
- Custom Milk Tooth Ring
- Hanging Baby Teeth Earrings
- Long Dangle Human Teeth Earrings
9. Gift Baby Teeth as a White Elephant Gift
For people who have a sense of humor, saving baby teeth, specifically two front teeth, can be a fun white elephant gift! After all, isn’t that all people want for Christmas? Two front teeth?
10. Use Baby Teeth in a Science Project
I’m pretty sure it was a homeschooler that told me this, but homeschooling or not, keeping baby teeth for your child’s future science project is a fun idea. You can see how various substances affect teeth (think colas, coffees, and teas) versus other liquids and chemicals.
11. How to Store Baby Teeth with Keepsake Baby Teeth Albums
If you don’t want to do boxes, jewelry, or dolls to store your child’s baby teeth, and want to store them as a cute keepsake, there are a bunch of different products out there designed solely for this purpose.
12. Personalized My First Curl & My First Tooth Keepsake Boxes
Rather than keep ALL of a child’s baby teeth, many parents like to just keep the first tooth. There are many “my first curl and my first tooth” gift sets out there that make for more heirloom-esque, sentimental, keepsakes than some of the other options in this article.
Here are just a few examples of these first tooth and first curl gift sets you can get:
- Pewter Keepsake Box for Baby’s First Tooth (use code FAGANS15 for 15% off!)
- Satin-Lined Rosewood Keepsake Box with Silver Plated First Tooth and First Curl Boxes
- Personalized Engraved Silver-Plated Round My First Curl & Tooth Set
- Airplane and Race Car First Tooth and First Curl Set
- Ceramic Giraffe & Elephant White and Gold Tooth and Curl Set
13. Sell Baby Teeth Online
Apparently, it was revealed that in 2012 that you can sell baby teeth on Etsy, so if you’re feeling entrepreneurial about it, or simply want to recoup the Tooth Fairy fees, you could sell your child’s baby teeth online. Some people have even tried selling teeth on Craigslist.
It seems the going rate is $5 a tooth (which is more than my children receive from the Tooth Fairy that visits our house).
14. Handmade Creepy Monster Doll with Human Teeth
I’m sure you’ve seen this creepy monster doll shared on Facebook, but there’ are these stuffed monster dolls with sewn in baby teeth called Fugglers. They’ve apparently been around since 2010, and are made from false teeth usually, but people have actually started making their own using their children’s real baby teeth! You could be one of them.
Do people keep wisdom teeth in the same way that they keep baby’s teeth?
Typically, no. Keeping those first baby teeth is a little bit different than keeping wisdom teeth. Some parents may hold a lost baby tooth or keep a first look tooth as a memento, while others discord old baby teeth after a while. Typically with wisdom teeth, they’re removed by the dentist and not kept.
How long do you keep teeth?
This all just depends on the person keeping them! Some people keep them through the teenage years, while others only keep them for as long as they’re stored under their child’s pillow.
Where do you store teeth that are keepsakes?
Memory boxes are great for storing teeth and are a safe place because they’re out of the way with no worries of getting lost. A lot of people will keep their baby’s first tooth or their children’s baby teeth in an empty space like that for safe keeping.
What do you do with baby’s teeth that isn’t a healthy tooth?
The loss of baby teeth is a big deal, but you don’t want to keep ones that aren’t showcasing good oral hygiene. If there are baby teeth with cavities, most people will get rid of those. (also be sure to talk to your child’s dentist about ways that you can ensure that the new tooth won’t have issues)
You want to ensure that a full set of healthy teeth and healthy gums are coming in, so that you and your child have good lower teeth and good top front teeth and more.
So what do you think? What do you do with baby teeth after they fall out? Which of the above creative things to do with baby teeth appeals most to you?
Chelsea @ Life With My Littles says
This is so weird! That doll! And why in the world would you want to save them!? No thanks! I’ll throw them away!
Veronica Mitchell says
I didn’t know you could use baby teeth for stem cells. I didn’t saved my kids’ baby teeth, I haven’t found any reasons to keep them but mu daughter wants to keep hers for the tooth fairy! LOL That’s a very creepy monster doll right there, yikes!
Emma says
My family did not do the tooth fairy nor any gifts for loosing teeth, but my mom kept them in a beautiful little box – that she left in my room after I asked for them. I was fascinated by them. I lost them in a move but wish I still had them. Weirdly I am don’t even like keeping too many photos, mementos I am not the hoarding type but the teeth were kind of magical seeming to me. I do think if she had hidden them and just plopped them out when I was an adult already I would have found the whole thing probably rather bizarre. But the fact they stayed a part of my childhood gave it a different special meaning.
Shelby says
I’m already having nightmares about those dolls, wow!! I think the baby teeth are fascinating to look at when they come out, but they’re usually bloody and gross, so I toss them. They are cool though, kind of along the lines of my grandpa (biologist) mailing me a fox skull randomly when I was 16. I thought it was SO COOL, but mom made quick work of throwing that out. A bit macabree keeping body parts around I guess. But still, what sharp tiny little teeth!
Jeanne-Marie says
I turned my child’s tooth into a funny little sculpture called Toofie. It was so much fun I decided to add a page to my art website and offer it to anyone else who’d like one.
W Ward says
When my two sisters and I were in braces, my mother kept our pulled teeth in her jewelry box. (Maybe to discourage us from wanting to borrow bracelets?) Years later, she had all of her teeth extracted for dentures.
She recently died, and as the oldest, I was tasked to clean out her dresser. I was Not in the mood to come across that DISGUSTING 50 year old cache of rotted and split teeth. I had to put on blue gloves to clean out the drawer.
WHY?! It’s not like we’re going to throw them in her cremation coffin.
Stop this nasty “hobby/tradition” now! Nobody wants to find teeth among their parents effects!