Letter: Teeth of the evidence

Sir: I read with interest the article (19 August) on "The cost of growing", not least because of the curious notions of infant dentition it contained. In the first paragraph we were told of "gap-toothed offspring on that first momentous day at school". Surely more a feature of the Year 1 or Year 2 photo than the reception class.

It got better - "the potential for up to eight visits from the tooth fairy". My children have each had 20 first teeth and the tooth fairy is continuing to work her way through them - and the parental purse. I guess a child who has the potential for only eight tooth fairy visits will indeed look very gap-toothed on the first day at school.

FIONA ROBERTSON

Planning Division

University of Bradford