Inuvik (Apr 15/05) - The Tooth Fairy recently recruited some extra help from boys and girls around town and now those tooth-fairies-in-training are ready to open wide and spill the beans on some of their more closely guarded secrets.

"I had 11 kids to see last night," said apprentice Tooth Fairy Jeffery Hunter.

XAllison Baetz, 10, Grade 5 student at SAMS and part-time Tooth Fairy, demonstrates the proper method all boys and girls should use to keep their teeth clean and healthy. - Chris Hunsley/NNSL photo

Most of the teeth he found stashed under pillows were nice and clean, he said, but one was very disappointing.

"It was a silver tooth with a killer big cavity," said Hunter, who awarded the other youngsters with a fresh $5 bill for each good tooth.

The silver one went in the trash.

Kids with bad teeth get nothing, he said.

Hunter and the rest of Ms. Stringer's Grade 5 class at SAMS were hand-picked by the Big Boss of Teeth to be special helpers during Dental Health Month.

All 24 of them spent Tuesday writing about their fantastic escapades, collecting teeth from around the world.

Finished accounts will be posted so other youngsters can read about proper tooth maintenance and learn the answer to the question on everyone's mind: What do Tooth Fairies do with all those teeth?

Josephine Martin said she'll make a nice big house with the clean teeth she collects.

"Dirty ones are thrown in the dump," she said.

Although it's tiring work travelling the world daily in search of cavity-free ivories, it's an important job that should not be taken for granted, Josephine noted, adding that little kids would have no teeth if the Tooth Fairy didn't encourage them to keep them clean.

The designs on the chompers picked up by Kathreen Dyck were so pretty, she fashioned a necklace out of the pearly whites she picked up in London, New York, California, B.C. and Newfoundland.

The best came from London and New Yorkers had rotten teeth, she said. But a shiny baby tooth collected from the west coast made up for everything.

For Mallory Lipscomb, there have been plenty of exotic adventures since she took on the responsibilities that go with being a fairy.

"I was scuba diving and I saw a shark and he was smiling at me because he knew I was the tooth fairy," she said.

His sharp incisors were so white and clean, Lipscomb said, she dropped a whopping two sand dollars for one dropped baby tooth.

"That was the best tooth," she said.

Stay tuned for more adventures from Inuvik's band of dental heroes. Next up, advice for those on Planet Tooth Decay about how to keep those teeth sparkling white.

Remember, they're worth nothing if they aren't healthy and clean.