Tag Archives: teeth

The Sugar Bugs — Legendary Creatures

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Fort Collins, CO
Performance Date: April 3, 2023
Primary Language: English

Text

“The Sugar Bugs were something that I thought was a thing growing up. My parents would be like, ‘You need to brush your teeth. Watch out for the Sugar Bugs!’ 

“And so I always imagined that if I didn’t brush my teeth and I went to sleep, there would be bugs crawling all over my teeth at night and eating my teeth. They would come from sugar, from candy or some other junk food eaten. They would destroy my teeth and give me a cavity or something like that. 

“To prevent them from coming and destroying my teeth, I’d brush my teeth at night before bed, making sure I brush everything out. When I spat in the sink afterwards, I would see the bugs in the sink. If there were particles of food or even the foam of the toothpaste, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the Sugar Bugs.’

“And so by brushing your teeth, you could avoid the Sugar Bugs. And if you didn’t brush your teeth, you would get cavities from the bugs in your mouth that would eat up your teeth. “

Context 

AH is a 21 year-old college student from Houston, Texas. She grew up in what is sometimes described as an ‘ingredient household,’ a family with very little junk food or sweets in the house. 

AH learned about the Sugar Bugs from her mom at a young age as part of teeth-brushing. AH’s mom said she also learned about them from her own parents. AH said while she only truly believed in them up until first or second grade, she still thinks about them and the imagery they provoke.

“I was actually just thinking about the Sugar Bugs on my teeth as I indulged myself in an entire chocolate bunny at 6:30 p.m.,” she said. “Sometimes I definitely still think about it. I’m like, ‘I need to brush my teeth.’ Not necessarily because I’m like, ‘Oh my God, little bugs are crawling on my teeth.’ But sometimes I literally think that.” 

AH also reflected on how the fear of the Sugar Bugs may have contributed to negative views of food, specifically junk food. 

“They just reinforced ideas that were being directly or indirectly communicated from my parents,” she said, referencing the belief that junk food is unhealthy. “If you did have junk food, which is so bad for you, you really have to do this or else you’re going to have horrible consequences.”

Analysis

The Legend of the Sugar Bugs appears at a liminal moment in childhood development when a kid is beginning to learn certain self-care tasks, which, in addition to teeth-brushing, include bathing, showering, hand washing, etc. These tasks are eventually completed independently but often require parental urging. This is where the utility of the legend comes in.

The Sugar Bugs co-opt the available framework of real bugs, which are understood as gross and icky and certainly not something one would want inside one’s mouth. Yet these creatures are somehow different from real bugs, as they have a certain mythical quality to them endowed by the question of their truth value: Did you or did you not see a Sugar Bug in your toothpaste when you spit it out? 

AH mentioned seeing food particles as Sugar Bugs. This memorate was her interpretation of a personal experience into an existing legendary structure.

The legend is acted out on a nightly basis as the child brushes their teeth for the sole purpose, as they are told, of getting rid of Sugar Bugs. The repetition of an action tied to a legend is likely to increase belief in the legend, or at least an adherence to the teeth-brushing, bug-cleansing ritual.

The legend comes with a moral: Sugar is bad for you, and teeth brushing is good. There is also the element of fear as these Sugar Bugs can supposedly cause one harm.

A brief Google search yields references to the Sugar Bugs in children’s books and on pediatric dentistry websites. It appears to be an ‘innocent’ children’s legend employed to encourage cleanliness and independence around ages four to seven.

However, AH noted how the fear of Sugar Bugs does not necessarily disappear for those who were raised in a household that held very negative views of junk food and candy. While the belief in Sugar Bugs as actual creatures may fade, the fear associated with junk food may remain, only translated into the framework of body dysmorphia or binge eating.

“If I just eat all the candy in one sitting, then I just brush my teeth really well once,” AH joked. 

Folk belief about changing teeth.

Text:

“When Children lose their teeth, they should throw the teeth up if they lose their lower teeth, and throw the teeth downward if they lose their upper teeth. This helps the child grow their teeth quicker.”

context:

Mr. B is my friend in China. This is a part of his personal experience. His grandparents told him this piece of folk belief.

analysis:

This is a folk belief of magic that exemplifies the wish for the fast growth of children’s teeth. There is a lot of similar folk belief that involves such movement in a direction correlated with one’s growth. One example is that if a kid jumps a lot, he would grow very tall. Also, the physical movements of objects seem to have a lot of symbolic meaning in folk beliefs.

In regard to Frazer’s principles of sympathetic magic, this teeth-throwing magic fits in the categorization of both contagious and homeopathic magic. It is contagious that the teeth are a part of the body of the action. Although the new teeth have nothing to do with the old teeth, throwing the old teeth higher seems to have a magic force that will help the new teeth grow faster. On the other hand, it is homeopathic because throwing downward or upward is similar to growing teeth downward or upward. The differences are that one is by nature, the other by force, and one is new and one is old.

“KARIUS OG BAKTUS”

Nationality: Norwegian
Age: 50
Occupation: Stay-at-home-mom
Residence: Vail, Colorado
Performance Date: April 24, 2021
Primary Language: Norwegian
Language: English

MAIN PIECE: 

Informant: So… There’s these two cute little, I would almost call them little trolls. And they’re called Karius and Baktus. One has black hair, one has red hair. And they live in this little boy’s mouth… So it’s about a boy called Jens… And, it’s um… And he loooves white bread and sugar and syrup… And so… These two little trolls are kind of the, uh, the bacteria living in his mouth I guess… Or whatever is causing him to have cavities… And so the story shows them building houses and balconies and almost little towns in this boy’s mouth… And how they don’t like the toothbrush, and every time the toothbrush comes they hide ‘cause they’re scared of the toothbrush. And every time this little boy eats sugar food they get so excited and cheer him on and say yes they want sugar and syrup and white bread… Whereas if he eats, like, healthy food, they’re very upset and sad… But you know, they hammer, and do construction in this boy’s mouth to build all their houses and that hurts Jens, the little boy… And so, the story goes… He finally ends up at the dentist, and the dentist fills all his cavities. So now that the dentist has filled all the cavities, they don’t have anywhere to live… And now when the toothbrush come next time, they don’t have anywhere to hide anymore and so they’re flushed out. And so… Jens is obviously happy, but Karius and Baktus, the two little trolls, are not so happy anymore. 

INFORMANT’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE PIECE:

Informant: It’s kind of sad actually… It’s kind of funny now that I’m talking about it, how the good is actually sad you know what I mean? 

Interviewer: So… Who tells this story? Why is it told? Where did you learn it? 

Informant: Well “Karius og Baktus” is one of the more popular stories for kids. Like almost every child has heard their parents tell it. And they have theater performances now. It’s also filmed. So, I mean, you can pretty much see any version of it… And it’s used to teach kids to eat healthy. Because in Norway we don’t eat a lot of sugar, except for on the weekends or special occasions… And we never eat white bread really… Everyone in Norway loves to bake and bakes their own bread which is like… Multigrain or whole wheat. Um… It’s just all very healthy. So parents use the story to teach kids to eat healthy so the trolls don’t, uh, build houses in their mouth and hammer and start building. Because obviously cavities hurt, you know?

REFLECTION:

“Karius og Baktus” exemplifies the pedagogical and cautionary nature of tales. Norwegians have, for many years, used this story to influence their children’s eating habits, warning against the damaging effects of too much sugar. The informant was told the tale as a child, and went on to pass it onto me, her child. Children’s minds are very impressionable, which is perhaps why children are so frequently the audience of tales. The tales are entertaining––thus retaining childrens’ attention––but are also vessels for important lessons. It is likely that tales make the lesson easier to grasp and to summarize. “Karius og Baktus,” for example, highlights each phase of developing and fixing a cavity. Rather than explain to a child time and again that sugar causes cavities and cavities hurt, a parent needs only to mention “Karius og Baktus” and the child will understand immediately what is meant. It is much easier for a child to grasp the severity of cavity-induced pain if they have something to compare it to and visualize (ex. having little trolls hammering away at your teeth). It is also likely that the entertainment factor of tales is, at least in part, what helps the lessons “stick”––what ensures they are retained. The informant remembers this tale to this day. As do I, and I surely will always associate cavities with “Karius og Baktus.” 

ANNOTATION:

Book version:

Egner, Thorbjørn, et al. Karius and Baktus. Skandisk Publications, 1994.

The Tooth Fairy

Nationality: American
Age: 50s
Occupation: Event Planner
Residence: Excelsior, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/14/2015
Primary Language: English
Language: None

Informant: “When [my children] were growing up and their teeth fell out, we would tell them to put the tooth under their pillow, and during the night the tooth fairy would come and leave a dollar under their pillow and take the tooth.”

Collector: Where did you first hear about the tooth fairy?

Informant: “Well, I first heard it from my mother when I was little. My mom told me to take the tooth and put it in this little pouch with a picture of a tooth on it, and when I woke up there would be a quarter in there. I guess the tooth fairy has upped the amount of money she gives up nowadays [laughs].”

Collector: Do you know why the tooth fairy wanted teeth?

Informant: “Oh that’s actually a really good question, I’m not really sure… Wow, that’s weird, we’ve been doing this for who knows how long, and no one’s ever asked what she does with the teeth. I guess I just never thought to ask because for me it was always just you wake up and ‘ooh! A Quarter!’ and then not really think about it. I’m not even sure if she actually needed the tooth, I remember one time I actually physically lost my tooth, and I was really bummed because I wouldn’t get my quarter, so my mom told me to put a white bean under my pillow instead, and that was supposed to work because the tooth fairy would think it was a tooth or something. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I remember hearing that she used the teeth to string necklaces or make stars or something like that”

Informant is a middle aged mother of three who lives in the suburbs in the Midwestern United States. She identifies as of “American” heritage, which she bases on her admission that she never particularly looked into her family’s European heritage. The informant’s daughter is a recent college graduate.

Collector Analysis: This particular folklore is actually (in the collector’s opinion) fairly widely spread in the United States, and in fact this collector actually heard a similar story growing up. The most curious aspect of this story is that most of the people who have heard of the tooth fairy have little to no idea why this fairy is collecting teeth. Of course, the experience of losing one’s baby teeth as a child is a nearly universal aspect of human life, and it is quite possible that this story originated as a way to encourage children to report their lost teeth to their parents, who of course would be interested in the dental health and developmental progress of their children. It also may have been meant as a way to encourage children to remove their loose teeth, as it is possible that keeping a loose tooth in one’s mouth for too long could potentially cause health and/or hygiene complications.

“Heard it from the horse’s mouth”

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, Ukiah
Performance Date: 4/23/15
Primary Language: English

I was talking with my friend and I said that I needed to hear a fact straight from the person who said it, and then she said something like, “yeah, you have to hear it from the horse’s mouth.” I inquired what she meant by this, where she had heard it from, etc. This is what she told me.

Informant: “My mom says, ‘I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth’ and that means that you heard it from the person who said it, so it’s authentic.”

Collector: “Do you know why it’s specifically a horse?”

Informant: “I don’t know, but she did grow up around a lot of horses. She grew up on a cattle ranch. And they all rode horses around.”

Collector: “So do you think this is specific to farmer culture or rancher people, rather than city folk?”

Informant: “I think so because you tend to… your language is dependent on your surroundings. You use analogies based on where you live, or on the things that you know”

The informant didn’t know much more about the origins of the proverb, but after some basic online search, I found that thefreedictionary.com offers the following explanation: “this expression alludes to examining a horse’s teeth todetermine its age and hence its worth. [1920s]” As my informant mentioned, this expression probably originated from a culture that was accustomed to being around horses, so its relevance in the future might be questionable.