Tooth Coloring Pages

A wobbly tooth is a big event when you are six. These tooth coloring pages are made for that moment and for everything around it: brushing, the dentist, the tooth fairy and the gap in the smile afterwards.

Most pages star a smiling tooth with a life of its own. It holds a toothbrush taller than itself, splashes in a bubble bath, flies over the rooftops in a cape, swings between two big teeth, jogs past an apple and a carrot in a running shirt, surfs a curling wave, lounges under a beach umbrella in sunglasses, runs through a finish line ribbon, plays the trumpet in a marching band of vegetables and sits on a cloud fishing under the moon. It lives in a house with window boxes and a chimney, rides in a tooth shaped hot air balloon, wears a crown inside a leafy wreath and holds hands with a child and a family of teeth.

The tooth fairy has pages of her own: lifting a tooth from under a pillow, sleeping in a hammock tied between two toothbrushes, riding a fuzzy bee over a village, weighing a tooth against coins on a little scale and flying through a bedroom at night on a trail of sparkles. A baby tooth waits on a lace cloth on the nightstand, next to a coin pouch and a candle.

For the everyday side, there is a toothbrush, a cup and a tube of toothpaste on a shelf, a toothbrush and toothpaste dancing on the bathroom tiles, a boy on a step stool brushing his teeth while the cat watches from the tub, a big open mouth with a dental mirror, a dentist chair with its lamp and instruments, a little knight standing up to a grumpy sugar cube, and a boy in pajamas proudly pointing at his missing front tooth. A toothbrush mandala, a tooth full of flowers and a tooth framed by leafy branches are there for patient colorers.

Baby teeth and grown-up teeth

Children have twenty baby teeth, and most start losing them around the age of six, usually the bottom front teeth first. The adult teeth push them out from underneath, which is why a baby tooth goes wobbly before it falls. A full set of adult teeth has thirty-two, counting the four wisdom teeth that often arrive much later. The last baby teeth usually go around the age of twelve.

That long gap between the first lost tooth and the last is why a tooth coloring page comes back again and again: every wobbly tooth is a new occasion.

The tooth fairy and the tooth mouse

In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, a lost tooth goes under the pillow and the tooth fairy swaps it for a coin during the night. In much of Europe and Latin America, the visitor is a mouse instead: la petite souris in France, Ratoncito Pérez in Spain and Spanish speaking countries. Other families throw a lost tooth onto the roof or bury it in the garden. Asking a child what their family does, and drawing it on the back of the page, makes a nice conversation for a class with children from different places.

Brushing, and why the sugar cube is the villain

Dentists recommend brushing twice a day for two minutes, with a pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste for children from about three years old. Two minutes feels very long at the sink. A good trick is to color for two minutes by the kitchen timer, to feel how long it really is, then brush for the same time. The knight and the sugar cube page is a gentle way to explain why sweets are hard on teeth: the sugar feeds the germs that make holes, and the brush chases them away.

Big teeth for small hands

A tooth is one of the simplest shapes there is: a rounded top and two roots. Most pages here keep it large and friendly, perfect for preschoolers. The pages with the fewest details are listed under Quick to color, above the grid:

• Tooth and toothbrush
• Bathroom shelf
• Fishing from a cloud

The flower tooth, the mandala and the castle are for older children and adults. Lots of detail begins with:

• Flower tooth
• Fairy on a bee
• Tooth castle

Pages for the dentist and the classroom

These pages are useful well beyond a lost tooth. Dental offices print them for the waiting room, and teachers use them during dental health month in February, alongside a lesson on brushing. At home, a page before a first dentist visit gives a child something to talk about: the big chair, the lamp, the little mirror. A finished page with the date of each lost tooth written on it also makes a keepsake for the baby book.

Printing a tooth for the pillow

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so every tooth and toothbrush stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack puts a whole set into one file for a class or a waiting room. More magic is in the fairy coloring pages, more easy pages for young children in the preschool coloring pages and the kawaii coloring pages, and more pages for the classroom in the teacher coloring pages.