Before antibiotics, when maternal and pediatric medicine meant many babies didn't survive infancy, the loss of a first tooth was a celebratory moment. It means they'd passed those critical first months without disaster, and their survival rate increased dramatically after that. The sentimental Georgians and Victorians often took these "milk teeth", as they were called then, and set them into joyful jewelry. What more personal souvenir could exist? Before you could scroll through a zillion photos of your kiddo on your iphone, before photography even was imagined, a milk tooth jewel was a way to keep your baby close to your heart.