For 20 years, Dr. Purva Merchant has been living a double life as both a pediatric dentist in Seattle and the real tooth fairy, secretly answering thousands of emails from children and frantic parents across the world. It all started accidentally in 2004 when her boyfriend created an email address containing “tooth fairy” to help her apply to dental school, and three years later she received her first desperate message from a mother whose child was heartbroken that the tooth fairy had skipped their house. Instead of ignoring the email, Dr. Merchant decided to respond, and that single act of kindness has grown into a magical mission spanning two decades.
She now answers three to five tooth fairy emails every single day, addressing everything from lost teeth that went down the drain to children wondering if the tooth fairy types with her feet or what happens to all those collected teeth (answer: they build a tooth castle, obviously). Dr. Merchant has responded to over 6,000 emails, often reassuring worried children that she’s just been unusually busy but their house is next on her list, or that she can definitely find that tooth they accidentally swallowed. Her messages combine childhood magic with gentle dental health reminders about brushing and flossing. What started as a simple email mix-up has become a heartwarming testament to the power of preserving childhood wonder, proving that sometimes the most meaningful magic happens when someone decides to believe in it too.