[HN Gopher] Claim for a missing tooth
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Claim for a missing tooth
Author : lukecarr
Score : 108 points
Date : 2025-03-28 12:25 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (tf230.matteason.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (tf230.matteason.co.uk)
| matteason wrote:
| I made this, thanks for sharing it!
|
| Backstory is here:
| https://bsky.app/profile/seamas.bsky.social/post/3lkigjm7sk2...
|
| ...and here:
| https://bsky.app/profile/matteason.me/post/3lknf6qfsek2p
|
| tl;dr Seamas O'Reilly wrote a column in The Observer about faking
| a government reimbursement form for his son, who had swallowed a
| tooth and was worried about whether the Tooth Fairy would pay up
| if the tooth couldn't be put under his pillow. He published the
| form as a PDF (linked from the homepage) and I turned it into a
| digital service
|
| Someone on Bluesky told me about our first successfully-fooled
| child yesterday: "I can confirm that form TF-230 worked
| flawlessly, and my cynical, streetwise 8-year-old son was utterly
| baffled by finding an envelope with his application form and a
| handful of coins in the letterbox this afternoon."
| lukecarr wrote:
| Awesome, great job on the site! I saw it on the Slack, and was
| surprised at the level of detail in some of the pages like the
| tooth selection screen :D
|
| It also got a good chuckle from those I shared it with at work!
| :)
| thih9 wrote:
| 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.
| joshdavham wrote:
| This is really creative! Thanks for sharing!
| silisili wrote:
| 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.
| jahsome wrote:
| 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.
| theginger wrote:
| How timely is this. Just minutes ago my child handed me a tooth
| to go under their pillow, then I find this.
| Willingham wrote:
| 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 (:
| rob_c wrote:
| Given the source of truth is British English, the maths says
| no.
| cpfohl wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| It's always "maths" not "math" but we'd always say "the
| maths says" and I've never questioned it until right now
| speerer wrote:
| Just like "the science says" (but unlike "the English
| say" ;) ).
| timthorn wrote:
| It's still singular. Maths is just a contraction of
| mathematics, but without an apostrophe.
| chupasaurus wrote:
| Mathematics is uncountable (:
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Since it's a spoof of gov.uk, "rubber" is correct!
| matteason wrote:
| Oh god I knew this would be contentious
|
| I've just changed it to 'eraser' but actually I should make
| it conditional on your navigator.language...
| chupasaurus wrote:
| Even in Soviet textbooks for English in elementary schools
| (which are garbage by any standard) both variants were
| presented (:
| TZubiri wrote:
| Very creative and well executed.
|
| When I was like 6 a friend choked me and I swallowed my tooth. I
| was very sad because the tooth fairy ("raton perez") would not
| pay me :(
|
| But thankfully I found a note notifying me that they found my
| tooth and reimbursing me :)
|
| So I see where the idea came from, but I wouldn't ever had
| imagined this bureocratic twist
| matteason wrote:
| 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
| Karellen wrote:
| Can't believe no-one else has made a comment about how great
| the form id "230" (tooth-hurty) is, yet. Bravo.
| matteason wrote:
| Seamas gets the credit for that one :)
| https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/16/will-
| th...
| krupan wrote:
| I love "wee" for a color choice, lol!
| rcambrj wrote:
| This is remarkably adorable :)
|
| Check the tooth colours in dark mode though, "white" is very much
| not white (it's black).
| matteason wrote:
| Ah how have you set dark mode? I haven't got a dark theme via
| prefers-color-scheme or anything so whatever is setting it
| might just be brute-forcing white to black or something. I'll
| fix it if I can!
| benwerd wrote:
| A little context for those who weren't aware: tooth-stealing
| ferrets are an ongoing, serious problem in Britain.
| matteason wrote:
| And not a single politician is addressing it. Shameful.
| gwern wrote:
| 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"!
| amluto wrote:
| 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?
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(page generated 2025-03-30 23:00 UTC)