Annual survey show how inflation has hit the Tooth Fairy business

Reason No. 341 that I'm glad my kids are grown: I'm not sure the Tooth Fairy at our house could keep up with the Joneses.

(And I say that both generally and specifically. Because our next-door neighbors and friends were literally the Jones family in Suisun City.)

During my childhood, the Tooth Fairy would leave a coin under my pillow in exchange for me giving him a tooth. Maybe there would be a dime. Possibly a quarter.

(Side question: What – if any – gender do you assign the Tooth Fairy? I have always assumed the Tooth Fairy was a male, but Mrs. Brad considers the Tooth Fairy female. It doesn't have to be one or the other, since fairies probably aren't limited in their genders. But I'm starting to go into an area of discussion for which I'm unqualified and I might make someone mad, so back to the column . . .)

Fast forward a generation to my two sons. As they lost teeth in the 1990s, we . . . uh, I mean the Tooth Fairy would leave either coins (we were not wealthy and we were bound by tradition. Just ask the boys, who more likely would use the word "cheap") or perhaps a $1 bill. More likely coins. That was the 1990s and I worked at a newspaper.

Well, things have changed. If you think the cost of homes has gone up, wait until you hear about teeth!

According to an annual survey by Delta Dental, the average value of a single tooth last year – as judged by the amount left by the Tooth Fairy – was $6.23.

Six dollars and twenty-three cents!

That was a jump of nearly a dollar from the figure in 2022 and was up from $1.30 in the first survey, 25 years ago (when my sons were getting 50 cents or maybe a dollar. They are right, we were cheap).Teeth are going up in value: According to the Delta Dental people, at this pace, the average tooth in 2048 will be worth $30.

I'm shocked by this in the same way I'm shocked at the price of child care and by how much people spend on their kids' shoes. It makes me feel like one of those people in my childhood who talked about how they'd go to the movies and get popcorn for a dime then play kick-the-can on the way home to listen to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio.

But six dollars a tooth? It seems outrageous.

A couple of other notes of significance from the study: 

• The Tooth Fairy is welcome in 81% of homes.
• Among parents, 27% say their kids go to bed early in anticipation of the Tooth Fairy's visit.
• In 33% of households, the first tooth gets the most money (an average of $7.29. Which begs the question of how the kids react when their second tooth gets less money?).

I'm glad information from this survey wasn't public knowledge when my sons were growing up. Of course, they knew their parents were cheap (their dad, for sure), but this might have made them think the Tooth Fairy was also cheap.

And I would hate for them to think that about him. Or her. Whatever. Never mind, I will stop talking about the Tooth Fairy's gender and focus on how generous he or she or they are now.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.