How Much Do You Give the Tooth Fairy?
There has been a lot of talk on the dental airwaves recently about the tooth fairy. From fairy floss to the average cost of a lost tooth approaching the $4 mark, the Tooth Fairy certainly seems to have an effective PR machine on her side.
According to this story in the Kansas City Star, quoting a recent study by Visa Inc, the average cost of a lost tooth is up 23% from 2012.
“Visa calculated that a child would gross $74 for a full set of 20 baby teeth. (The survey noted the national average was actually $3.70 per tooth.)“
The Tooth Fairy Has Parents Competing to Keep Up with the Jonses
In their survey of more than 3000 parents, Visa cites current household economic conditions and something they refer to as the “parental trap” being responsible for this increase in fiduciary tooth fairy gain.
As the Kansas City Star article points out, Visa’s John Alderman says parents don’t want their child to be the one on the block getting the lowest amount from the tooth fairy. Given the way kids talk on the playground, woe is the parent who is on the cheap side, said Alderman, Visa’s senior director of global financial education.
Seems the lucky youngsters in the Northeast receive the lion’s share of the increased Tooth Fairy take, averaging $4.10 per tooth, while kids in the West and South received an average of $3.70 and $3.60. Kids in the Midwest found the least under their pillows, $3.30 on average per tooth.
Who knew the Tooth Fairy had a geographic bias?
How Much Money to Leave the Tooth Fairy for a Lost Tooth?
That’s a question only individual parents can answer, depending of course on year over year amortization of lost teeth divided by the keeping up with the Jonses intangibles.
But just in case parents find themselves with nowhere to go, the Tooth Fairy has teamed up with Visa to create a free downloadable tooth fairy app that will give parents a ballpark idea of how much to give — based on gender, age, family size, income and other demographics.
You can access the app on Facebook’s apps page at Facebook.com/toothfairycalculator or by visiting The Tooth Fairy Calculator Facebook page.
Will the Tooth Fairy Soon Be Getting Upwards of $650 Per Tooth?
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