The history of the tooth fairy is at once very simple, and also as culturally complex as any other modern mythology.

The most obvious and direct roots of the “Tooth Fairy” as we know it in modern American culture, are in a small 3-act children’s play called The Tooth Fairy, produced in 1927, and that of the character created by Lee Rothgow in the 1949 book called, simply, “The Tooth Fairy.”

As direct as that may seem, the Tooth Fairy character does borrow from a cross-cultural plethora of traditions that spans the globe, and many centuries. (Much like the merry amalgam that makes up so many of our beloved mythological characters, like Santa and the Easter Bunny, and all the other folks you find in seasonal celebrations.)

Take, for example, a French fairy tale dating back to the 18th Century about a mouse that transforms into a fairy in order to help a Good Queen overthrow an Evil King by hiding under his pillow and, in one instance, knocking out all of his teeth.

Several Spanish-speaking countries have a character called Ratoncito Pérez – a magical little mouse called the "ratón de los dientes" (Tooth Mouse). The "Ratoncito Pérez" character was created in the late 1800’s by the priest Luis Coloma, when he was asked by the royal family to write a tale for the 8-year-old Alfonso XIII, when one of his teeth had fallen out.

The Irish and Italians both have stories in which the tooth-fairy is also a little mouse – (called Topino in Italy and Annabogle in Ireland.) In a slight variation, parts of Lowland Scotland have replaced the tooth-mouse with a white fairy rat that purchases children’s discarded teeth with coins (much like those that are now left under American pillows!).

In some Asian countries, when a child loses a tooth it is customary to throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. The child then wishes for his or her tooth to be replaced with that of a mouse, probably owing to the fact that mice’s teeth grow for their entire lifetime – presumably giving children a lifetime of healthy teeth.

In India, young children often offer their discarded baby teeth to the sun, wrapped in a tiny white rag.

Regardless of the precise mythology, it’s pretty clear that the losing of one’s baby teeth is considered and important rite of passage and has been celebrated with makeshift magic and mysticism as befitting the passage from childhood into adulthood – whether with wings or with magical mice.