Feb 28, 2024 - Culture
Tooth Fairy pays more than $5 per tooth in the South
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The Tooth Fairy is a big spender, giving children in the South a whopping $5.51 on average per lost tooth, according to a Delta Dental survey.
Why it matters: The tooth fairy's helpers — aka parents — are going to go broke at this rate.
The big picture: The average payout nationally for a single lost tooth is $5.84, a 349% increase from 1998 when a tooth fetched $1.30 on average.
- It's the second highest value for a lost tooth since Delta Dental started tracking Tooth Fairy trends 26 years ago.
Yes, but: Parents are starting to pinch their pennies, dropping the payout rate for the first time in five years.
- The South's rate last year was $6.59 per tooth, and the national rate was $6.23.
Zoom out: Delta Dental says in past years its poll has "typically mirrored the economy's overall direction" and tracked with S&P 500 trends.
- The trends went in a different direction for the second year in a row, Delta Dental says, noting the S&P 500 had a 20% increase while lost teeth experienced a small drop in the same period.