Naperville parents explain why tooth fairy’s putting 379% more money under kids’ pillows today than 25 year ago
Everyone is feeling the pinch of inflation, even the tooth fairy, according to a recent survey.
The Original Tooth Fairy Poll from a dental insurance company shows the average national cash gift from the tooth fairy has hit a record $6.23 per tooth.
Delta Dental of Illinois has been analyzing the tooth fairy’s giving trends in the United States for 25 years.
Since the poll’s inception, the average cash gift has surged 379% from $1.30 per tooth in 1998 to $6.23 this year.
If the same growth rate continues for the next quarter century, the tooth fairy can expect to place $30 under the pillow for a single tooth in 2048.
Naperville mother of two Karin Barden suspects the 2023 figure is high because other tooth fairies carry no wallet cash and the local ATM only dispenses $20 bills.
Barden doesn’t have to worry.
Her family’s tooth fairy obtained a stack of $2 bills from the bank when her oldest child’s first tooth was loose.
The first one was wiggly for days, she said, but now a tooth can fall out at dinner, she said. With two kids losing teeth at the same time, the secret stash comes in handy, she said.
A father of four kids, Naperville City Councilman Holzhauer said his family’s tooth fairy is very busy and sometimes forgetful.
One time it took a month — and a note from the child — for the fairy to remember, he said.
Typically, children in the Holzhauer household get $1.
In the case where it had been a month, it was a bit more because of tacked-on interest and guilt, he said.
“What we really should do is put a tap-to-pay under their pillow,” Holzhauer said.
Kids in the Barden and Holzhauer homes might want to negotiate a better deal with their tooth fairies.
That’s because the poll shows Midwestern children received 32% more from the tooth fairy than they did in 2022.
According to the Delta Dental survey, kids in the Midwest on average find $5.63 per lost tooth under their pillows, which is up $1.36 from last year.
That’s less than children in the Northeast, who get $6.14 per tooth on average, or kids in the West, who collect $6.25.
The best place for a kid with a loose tooth is in the South, where the tooth fairy doles out $6.59 per tooth on average.
Over the last 25 years, the Original Tooth Fairy Poll has typically mirrored the U.S. economy’s overall direction, tracking with the trends of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
The past year was a bit different.
While the average value of a single lost tooth increased 16% over the past year, the S&P 500 experienced an 11% decline during the same period.
