Sink Your Teeth into a Poem

Each February, the American Dental Association sponsors National Children's Dental Health Month to raise awareness about the importance of healthy mouths and happy smiles.  Today, we take the words out of several poets' mouths, celebrating our teeth and giving us something to smile about.  Our first poem is a rhymed list poem that talks about teeth, teeth, and more teeth!

One Tooth, Two Tooth, White Tooth, Looth Tooth 

One tooth. Two teeth.

Baby chew teeth.

Twenty bright teeth.

Pearly white teeth.

Daily use teeth.

Wiggle loose teeth.

Three teeth.  Four teeth.

In grow more teeth.

Grown-up new teeth.

Thirty-two teeth.

Not quite right teeth.

Overbite teeth.

Five teeth.  Six teeth.

Gotta fix teeth.

Seven teeth.  Eight teeth.

Now they-re straight teeth.

Nine teeth.  Ten teeth.

Brush and tend teeth.

Up teeth.  Down teeth.

Smile teeth frown teeth.

Too much cake teeth.

Ouch!  Toothache teeth.

Treat them well or you'll have fake teeth!

-- Allan Wolf

It's true, our mouths hold plenty of perfectly good human teeth, and they all need brushing.  Our next poem imagines how difficult tooth care would be if we were crocodiles... hippos... or great white sharks.  We might bite off more than we can chew:

Brushing

Oh I'm glad I'm not a crocodile,

'Cause brushing my teeth would take a while.

I'd go to bed late and get up early,

Just to keep my teeth all shiny and pearly.

I'm glad I'm not a hippopotamus.

I'd have to use an enormous brush

And tons of toothpaste, in a great pile,

To scrub, scrub, scrub my hippo smile.

I'm glad I'm not a great white shark,

Brushing my teeth, alone in the dark.

I might look in the mirror late at night

And give myself a terrible fright.

-- Carol Diggory Shields

We know what happens when a tooth starts to wiggle and jiggle: it feels funny, we sound a little funny, and it makes a poem that's good for a giggle!

My Tooth Ith Loothe

My tooth ith loothe!  My tooth ith loothe!

I can't go to thcool, that'th my excuthe.

I wath fine latht night when I went to bed,

But today it'th hanging by a thread!

My tooth ith loothe!  My tooth ith loothe!

I'm telling you the honetht truth.

It maketh me want to jump and thout!

My tooth ith loothe.... Oopth! Now it'th out!

--George Ulrich

Our final poem offers one last bite of Children's Dental Health Month advice:

Toothbrush

Someone used my toothbrush.

That isn't very fair.

Someone used my toothbrush.

Dad said we shouldn't share.

Someone used my toothbrush.

They thought I couldn't tell,

But it's soggy, kind of greenish,

And it has a funny smell.

My sister said, "Just use it!"

But I don't think I wanna.

I think she used my toothbrush

To scrub our pet iguana.

-- Carol Diggory Shields

And so, Poetry Paraders, today's lessons are important ones: (1) take good care of your pearly whites during Children's Dental Health Month and throughout the year, (2) brush your teeth after every poem, (3) don't forget to floss, and (4) never share your toothbrush with an iguana.