In a light-hearted report submitted to the British Medical Journal, doctors are said to be blaming the Tooth Fairy for several emergency situations that may result in malpractice suits against the mythical being. Doctors highlighted a case where an eight-year-old boy became ‘extremely distressed’ after believing that the Tooth Fairy had put a tooth in his ear when he left it under his pillow to exchange.
The doctors noted in the report that ‘We are concerned that the actions of the mythical character at the root of this report must be brought to the attention of the medical community, as it seems to represent the first signs of a worrying new trend in malpractice.’
The case in question involves a child who suffered with ‘profuse mucopurulent rhinorrhoea’ – better known as an extremely runny nose. A CT scan revealed a ‘calcified foreign body’ embedded in the boy’s left ear three years after he first complained that the Tooth Fairy had put a tooth in his ear instead of exchanging it for a gift. According to the report the child’s parents thought it was a bad dream and ‘initially reassured the boy but were unable to locate the tooth.’ The doctors added that ‘repeat auroscopy by the allergist confirmed the presence of a deciduous tooth in the auditory canal.’
His parents then decided to keep the tooth ‘for posterity’, rather than risk another visit from the tooth fairy that might end in disaster, although the child ‘kindly gave his consent for [the doctors] to disseminate this information to save other children from going through this ordeal.’