A Small Trip Through Tooth Lore, Or Where Did The Tooth Fairy Come From?

Have you heard the old sayings, "that puts my teeth on edge" or "by the skin of my teeth" or "long in the tooth" and ever wondered where they came from? And who invented the "tooth fairy"? There are many interesting colloquialisms about teeth that evolved across hundreds of years, some appearing in literary works and individual discourse even before Shakespeare's day. This brief article reviews the etymology of some of these sayings and their history.