Gone are the good old days of lost tooth lore when all that children wanted in exchange for their lost baby tooth was a healthy permanent tooth.
Nowadays, kids are demanding more and more from the tooth fairy.
Many parents want to know how much the tooth fairy pays. Personally, I’m not sure that it’s really the business of parents to know what goes on between the tooth fairy and their children, but what do I know?
For all those curious parents out there, here’s how much the tooth fairy has paid out over the last six years.
How Much Does the Tooth Fairy Pay Per Tooth?
I came across a wide variety of figures while researching the amount that the tooth fairy pays. I found this tooth fairy poll website that aims to track the current going rate for lost baby teeth as well as an article in Money Magazine from 2005. The article pegged the value of one lost baby tooth at $1.78.
The most comprehensive tooth fairy payout statistics, however, are available from Delta Dental of Minnesota. They seem to have a passion for finding out how much the tooth fairy pays. They go to great lengths to figure out the national average (as well as the Minnesota average) for tooth fairy payouts.
Here’s a summary of Delta Dental of Minnesota’s annual tooth fairy reports with a graph displaying the average price that the tooth fairy has paid per tooth over the last six years:
- The 2011 report said that the tooth fairy quotecorner.com/online-pharmacy.html paid $2.52. per tooth.
- The 2010 report said that the tooth fairy paid $2.13 per tooth.
- The 2009 report said that the tooth fairy paid $1.88 per tooth.
- The 2008 report said that the tooth fairy paid $2.09 per tooth.
- The 2007 report said that the tooth fairy paid $1.71 per tooth.
- The 2006 report said that the tooth fairy paid $2.00 per tooth.
As you can see, the values are steadily rising, which is good news for the children!
On a side note, the high rate of return (around 10% since 2005) causes me to think that baby teeth might be a good investment, especially when you take into account the fact that the U.S. credit rating was recently downgraded.
Should Children Be Able to Bank Their Teeth?
While researching for this article, I came across an interesting option the tooth fairy apparently offers. Some parents supposedly encourage their children to save up multiple lost teeth and then the child can cash them all in at once. By saving the teeth and then putting them all under their pillow at once, the tooth fairy gives them more for the teeth collectively than the good fairy would have given for each individual tooth.
Perhaps this helps children learn to save, or perhaps the tooth fairy is slowing down with old age and appreciates saving a trip. Either way, I’d never thought about doing this with my own kids. I’m still undecided, but I think I prefer the original system. After all, having to save up teeth might kill some of the excitement by not allowing each child to get their 20 tooth fairy visits.
How Much Does The Tooth Fairy Pay Per Tooth At Your House?
How much does the tooth fairy pay when she visits your children? Do your kids save up their teeth to get a larger payout from the tooth fairy? Does the tooth fairy pay more for teeth that have never had cavities? Do you have a child with a double tooth, an extra tooth, or congenitally missing teeth? If so, how does the tooth fairy account for those anomalies?
I’d love to hear what the tooth fairy does at your house. Thanks for reading!