The Tooth Fairy gets more generous every year — but is $100 too much to give a child?

Tracy Swartz
·3 min read
Even the Tooth Fairy is not immune to jaw-dropping inflation. $20 for a first tooth has become popular across the country, with some parents going well beyond that.
Even the Tooth Fairy is not immune to jaw-dropping inflation. $20 for a first tooth has become popular across the country, with some parents going well beyond that.

Brace yourselves, parents — some children are receiving crisp $100 bills and fancy jewelry, à la Louis Vuitton, from the Tooth Fairy.

“That was her first baby tooth that she lost, and the process was uncomfortable for her, so we decided to give her the extra Tooth Fairy experience,” UK mom Chidera Nig, 32, told the Wall Street Journal this week about her daughter collecting 60 British pounds (about $75), a letter, a silver fairy necklace and a Louis Vuitton bracelet.

As The Post previously reported, even the Tooth Fairy is not immune to jaw-dropping inflation. $20 for a first tooth has become popular across the country, with some parents going well beyond that to try to earn the crown for the most magical under-the-pillow offerings.

“Cash, a videogame, sometimes an iPhone,” Mark Burhenne, a former practicing dentist who runs AsktheDentist.com, told the Journal as he noted, “It’s the parents competing” to improve the gifts.

A poll from insurer Delta Dental found that a single lost tooth in 2023 was worth $6.23, up from $5.36 in 2022, and a record high in the 25-year history of the poll.

Delta Dental said at that rate, $30 for a single tooth would be the norm in 2048.

The Tooth Fairy knows the drill — $20 for a first tooth has become popular across the country, with some parents going well beyond that. Christopher Sadowski
The Tooth Fairy knows the drill — $20 for a first tooth has become popular across the country, with some parents going well beyond that. Christopher Sadowski
A poll from insurer Delta Dental found that a single lost tooth in 2023 was worth $6.23, up from $5.36 in 2022, and a record high in the 25-year history of the poll. bung – stock.adobe.com
A poll from insurer Delta Dental found that a single lost tooth in 2023 was worth $6.23, up from $5.36 in 2022, and a record high in the 25-year history of the poll. bung – stock.adobe.com

Some parents have breezed past three measly $10 bills.

One TikToker put at least $50 and a kitty sticker set under her daughter’s pillow last year, topping it all with “fairy dust.”

“Trying to make her childhood the best that I could,” the mom wrote.

“A kid at my school got $100 for losing a tooth,” someone posted on Reddit last fall.

“Yes, the parents confirmed and yes, I saw the crisp Benjamin as the child was waving it around at pick up,” the crestfallen poster added.

California mom Kokoa Lawson, meanwhile, told the Journal she gave her daughter a $100 bill decorated with glitter and tiny removable rhinestones (using a hair iron on the bills and spraying them with glitter is all the rage).

“She kind of lost her mind when she found it,” Lawson, a 40-year-old actress and model, said of her daughter even as she received pushback from relatives. “I simply said, ‘This is just what our Tooth Fairy does,’ and suggested they make it special in their own way for their kiddos.”

Delta Dental said at that rate, $30 for a single tooth would be the norm in 2048.
Delta Dental said at that rate, $30 for a single tooth would be the norm in 2048.

But Lesley Koeppel, a psychotherapist in a private practice in New York City, warns of the risks of giving kids large sums of cash for doing nothing.

“Yes, it’s an exciting milestone that you want to celebrate, but you don’t want to give them a false sense of accomplishment,” Koeppel told The Post last year. “You don’t want to give this impression that you just get money for no real reason.”