A dental recruitment company probably isn’t the first place a parent would expect to find the Tooth Fairy. Yet for years, children have been calling Your Tooth Fairy’s number hoping to speak with her. Some called at six in the morning, while others called late on Saturday nights. According to founder Melonee Steele, children accounted for around 10% of the company’s calls.
Their questions were wonderfully practical. Where does she live? Can she see them while they sleep? How does she get into the house? Does the tooth really need to go under the pillow? How much money is the Tooth Fairy leaving these days? Steele found herself answering these questions whenever they came in, sometimes carrying a small purse so she could decide on the appropriate reward on the spot.
Eventually, the calls led Steele to consider a more serious question. What happens to a child’s emotional experience of dentistry when the adult world concentrates mainly on the clinical side?
Steele has spent decades working within dental offices. Your Tooth Fairy, which she has led since 2013, recruits dental professionals across Canada, drawing on her own professional experience and that of a team made up of people from dental offices. She understands firsthand the pressures of a tightly scheduled dental practice. A dentist may have only a limited amount of time with each patient, while a nervous child may arrive with a series of questions they never quite find the confidence to ask.
“A lot of their questions can get missed,” Steele explains. “Or they’re too nervous to ask the dentist a question.” The physical environment can add to that uncertainty. A dental chair, bright examination light, instruments and a masked clinician create a setting designed for treatment. A child in that environment may feel very differently from one talking about the Tooth Fairy at home.
Steele has noticed that another type of conversation can take place when children speak to a fairy. “You’re much more open to say how you really feel or say what your wishes are,” she explains. “There’s a different opportunity for me to help them understand because it’s a different setting.”
That insight eventually transformed those unexpected phone calls into Call Tooth Fairy, a North American service that allows children to book a dedicated conversation with the Tooth Fairy. Each call lasts around 15 minutes, giving children uninterrupted time to ask questions and discuss the experience of losing a tooth.
The concept may sound whimsical, but Steele believes it serves an important purpose. Losing a first tooth is one of those childhood milestones that adults can easily underestimate. A child has felt the tooth wobble, watched it in the mirror and wondered when it will finally come out. The experience can bring anticipation and uncertainty as well as excitement.
Parents have a part to play, too. Steele highlights the familiar warning that if a child does not brush, the dentist will have to pull their teeth. Fear can become part of the narrative before a child has even developed an understanding of dental care.
Steele believes children deserve a more positive connection with their own oral health. “If we can teach them young that they have control over their destiny and dental health as well, then that’ll help us in the end,” she says.
Her approach has also extended into dental practices. Steele created a short children’s book, Tilly and the Starlight Surprise, and has distributed copies to dental offices to read with young patients. The story follows Tilly the Tooth Fairy after she forgets her money and leaves worry stones under a child’s pillow instead. The children then decorate the stones, turning an unexpected mishap into part of the experience.
For Steele, the wider lesson is that dental care starts long before a child understands the language of oral health. It begins with how they feel about the experience itself.
A first tooth deserves to be remembered. A question deserves an answer. A nervous child deserves the chance to speak. Sometimes, as Steele’s years in dentistry demonstrate, making care feel more personal can start by giving a child 15 minutes to talk to the Tooth Fairy.
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