Claim for a missing tooth
74 comments
·March 28, 2025matteason
Karellen
Can't believe no-one else has made a comment about how great the form id "230" (tooth-hurty) is, yet. Bravo.
pavel_lishin
I hope that Peter, Caitlin and Leslie aren't reading this - if you are, STOP IT.
One of the minor villains in my D&D campaign is a literal living nightmare - one of three. Each one is named after a time of night when they appear, and this one is named 2:30 - because he really likes the nightmare where your teeth all fall out.
He's the spookiest one of them all, but the least dangerous.
matteason
Séamas gets the credit for that one :) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/16/will-th...
salviati
This is very nice! Is it open sourced by any chance? Most kids in the world don't speak English, and it would be nice to be able to contribute translations.
In any case, nice job and thanks for sharing!
matteason
Yep! https://github.com/matteason/tooth-reimbursement-service
Localisation is a great idea, I've created an issue: https://github.com/matteason/tooth-reimbursement-service/iss...
lupire
Is citizenship required for submitting a claim, as the instructions imply?
Also, the tooth chart is an adult chart (32 teeth), not a child chart (24 teeth).
silisili
Neat idea!
This brings back an embarrassing memory from childhood.
Playing football in the yard, a careless neighborhood kid accidentally knocked two of my baby teeth out.
I remember scouring the grass for them to no avail, then getting in a rage about how I wouldn't get tooth fairy money, so punched the boy, and he started crying and ran home. I don't even remember who it was, but to this day feel bad about that.
When I got home, my parents said it's no problem, just write a letter explaining what happened and the tooth fairy will understand. And that worked.
Being a deviant, I decided to test it a few days later with another letter in secret, to no avail. And that was my first inclination this whole thing wasn't real.
throwaway2037
When I was a kid, I also tried the "small stone" trick under my pillow. (Of course, I announced it to my parents: "I'm going to see what happens if...") I think I got Monopoly money instead of real money. Still, it didn't dent my faith the Tooth Fairy.
like_any_other
The hubris in thinking the Tooth Fairy of all beings couldn't tell you didn't have any extra teeth missing...
jahsome
I think maybe you were using 'deviant' in a tongue and cheek way, but I think the way kids are naturally inclined to limit test and push boundaries in service of learning more about the world is among the most beautiful things in human existence.
Hopefully that's not the part of thr story you feel embarrassed about.
lupire
I don't know why you'd think that a fairy, with the power to fetch teeth from under your pillow and deposit payment undetected, and the power to monitor for for written letters that don't even emit denta particles to scan for, would lack a fraud unit.
Lio
Oh god, I just put in a made up claim for a tooth lost in Timbuktooth, just to test the system and then I saw this...
Knowingly making a false claim is a criminal offence under Section 17B(2) of the Teeth Finance & Renewal Act (1978) and you may be prosecuted, jailed, or blasted into space.
matteason
Okay, calm down, let's take this slowly. First things first: do you already own a spacesuit?
amluto
I’m confused. Traditionally, the Tooth Fairy pays for baby teeth, but the form shows numbering for permanent teeth.
Should there perhaps be a way to indicate the type of tooth and a chart showing numbering for baby teeth?
xico
There are some many kids with mesiodens and such that the diagram should also have little weirdly shaped bumps all around also. Also there shouldn't be an age limit for tooth fairies! I'm sure someone's great grandma would love the chocolate!
thih9
I like that you can select a wisdom tooth too. Adults having their wisdom teeth pulled out should absolutely use that website to file a claim.
pavel_lishin
This is very cool.
My daughter was very worried that she might lose her tooth and swallow it, so I told her that the sewer mermaids have an agreement with the tooth fairy, and they'd deliver the tooth to her, and then she would deliver the money.
My child didn't buy it, but maybe ya'll's will be more believing :p
willvarfar
I just went through the claim process and it explains that the sewer rats will be notified if you swallowed a tooth
ocdtrekkie
Sewer mermaids does strain credibility a bit, you have to admit. The human-scale rabbit which delivers gifts in eggs is far more credible.
hnbad
Oh, I'd like you to know that there is (internationally at least - I know the US likes its anthros) very intense debate around the issue whether the Easter Bunny is a human-sized rabbit or just a very fast rabbit-sized rabbit strong enough to lift a basket. I've also at several times heard kids argue that there's more than one rabbit involved or that the Easter Bunny is assisted by his family.
There's plenty of prior art depicting rabbit-sized Easter bunnies painting and loading eggs onto baskets and most kids have heard of the idea of Santa Claus having a workshop staffed by elves so I guess it's no big leap (or hop?) to deduct that there must be more than just one bunny involved, although you can argue about the relative time cost of hiding presents in multiple places compared to having to sneak into a building.
xico
Just for the confusion, in France, Belgium and areas around, it's bells, flying back from Rome, that bring chocolate to the children. The bells on churches fly there and are silent for some time and then come back on Easter with the sweets.
pavel_lishin
Funnily enough, just 30 minutes ago, my child accused me of lying to her about the Easter Bunny.
ascorbic
Is it bad that I was immediately jarred by the fact it doesn't use Transport Sans? Of course that is actually correct according to the GDS rules, because it's not on a service.gov.uk subdomain.
skavi
if i had to hazard a guess, that’s probably the exact response the design system is hoping for
donalhunt
Should also incorporate "mind the gap" some how...
lupire
Does the UK government have any enforce power to dissuade unofficial use?
matteason
It's as much a licensing issue as anything I think. GOV.UK uses 'GDS Transport', which is a custom cut of New Transport, a commercially-available font [0] which is available for the low, low price of £10k per weight for unlimited impressions. I've never seen any enforcement though (doesn't mean it doesn't happen) and it's pretty common for services not on *.service.gov.uk to end up using it anyway
blatantly
Not fooled! The site is too fast and didn't require 16 factor auth to get started. It also didn't ask me for 5 different government identifiers. Nice try tho.
gwern
Suggestion: change the 'missing teeth' form line to include an ordinal count or something. I was surprised to learn when filing my form that I had "Missing teeth: 30"!
benwerd
A little context for those who weren't aware: tooth-stealing ferrets are an ongoing, serious problem in Britain.
matteason
And not a single politician is addressing it. Shameful.
noneeeed
I love how closely this matches how GDS built flows work, not just the visuals. The careful step by step pacing, the direct wording, it's all absolutely spot on.
Perfect.
Willingham
Absolutely love the work done here! Only change I would make is change "rubber" to "eraser" to help more English speaking children understand the content (:
LeoPanthera
Since it's a spoof of gov.uk, "rubber" is correct!
harripa
As has already been pointed rubber is common British English, but perhaps more interestingly the etymology of name of the substance comes from this usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraser#History
chupasaurus
Even in Soviet textbooks for English in elementary schools (which are garbage by any standard) both variants were presented (:
chrisweekly
I have a TEFL certificate (Teacher of English as a Second Language) and I'm a native speaker and avid reader -- and this was the first time I ever encountered "rubber" as a synonym for "eraser". The benefit of the latter term is it's unambiguous and easily understood.
chupasaurus
I agree on eraser being superior.
I have an even weirder example from Russian language: file, folder and pocket are 3 out of dozen different words being used to describe a plastic envelope for documents in various regions and people don't understand each other. I remember only one more.
rob_c
Given the source of truth is British English, the maths says no.
cpfohl
Ooh! Perfect opportunity to ask a question I’ve definitely not spent an inordinate amount of time wondering about without bothering to look for an answer!
Is maths in British English plural? Like, should that be “the maths say”?
matteason
It's always "maths" not "math" but we'd always say "the maths says" and I've never questioned it until right now
chupasaurus
Mathematics is uncountable (:
avs733
Given the (highly memed) state of dental health in the UK it seems reasonable they would be responsible for this.
Really glad everyone's enjoying this!
If anyone does use it with their kids:
a) There's a sneaky secret admin page linked at the bottom ('Change settings') where you can set a price-per-tooth and add a custom question for them to answer: https://tf230.matteason.co.uk/admin
b) Please send me a copy of their answers, I'd love to see their drawings! There's a download link on the confirmation page and you can email me at the bottom of the same page. Actually this goes for adults' drawings too because a few people have sent me theirs and they're hilarious