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Subscribe to RSSTalk about a financial bite: Even the Tooth Fairy is cutting back these days.
After leaving an average of $2.52 per tooth in 2010, the market for pre-owned baby teeth seems to have softened considerably in 2011, with the average price falling to $2.10.
Until this year, the average per-tooth amount had been on a two-year upswing, after falling below $2 in 2008. The 2010 average was a record high for baby teeth, but it's too early to tell if the market will recover or if today's still-teething tots missed out on the boom.
For those old enough to remember getting a dime or a quarter under their pillows (and being thrilled!), a little over two bucks might still seem like a pretty good haul. The national average was already over a dollar per tooth when Delta Dental Plans Association began the conducting The Original Tooth Fairy Poll in 1998.
According to Delta, 90 percent of kids are visited by the Tooth Fairy. The most common amount left is a dollar, but first baby teeth almost always command a premium.
What do you think the Tooth Fairy should leave kids? Let us know on Facebook.
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Why do you get a quarter for your real teeth but have to pay $1700.00 for false ones??????
Capitalism at work. ;-)
My grandparents had dentures both up and down. It makes me want to care for my teeth fanatically. I usually brush abouot 5 times a day. I still have all of my original equipment teeth. God willing, I hope to keep it that way even when I am as old as my grandparents.
You can overdo it too. Brushing too much or too hard can wear away your tooth enamel, which then weakens your teeth and makes them more susceptible to decay.
My mom had false teeth by the time she was 30, and I assumed everyone lost their teeth with age. Having started life on a farm with well water and no flouride, plus being a nervous pencil-biter kid and later tooth-grinder with dry mouth, I think I was doomed. Pretty sure I micro-fractured my teeth because I was having root canals before I turned 20. My son, who was born into a flouridated world and is now 22, has had one small cavity in his life and still has some of his baby teeth. I don't know why we can't be like sharks and grow new ones.
That's something to keep in mind about brushing, but I also get regular checkups and so far my teeth are quite healthy. If my dentist tells me that I'm overdoing it, I will brush less, but for now everything is going ok.
You son is 22 and still has baby teeth? Wow! I lost my last baby tooth when I was 14 and I thought that was late. I guess not. I hope that means your son will have healthy teeth for his whole life.
The first time I lost a tooth, I was 5 years old (1970's) and expected to get a dime under my pillow. I woke up the next morning and found $1 instead. I asked my grandmother why I got $1 instead of a dime. Her answer was "inflation".
My kids are older now, but I'd give them a gold dollar coin under their pillows. It added a bit more "mystique" to the tooth fairy to see a gold coin. Of course, my wife thought it should be a coin for every tooth lost TO DATE, so by the 7th tooth there was $7 under there!!!
My tooth fairy gave us a quarter (in the 80's). Guess I had a very budget-wise fairy...
I had that same fairy. Somehow the one my kid ended up having was slightly more generous. My nieces (5 and under) are getting TEN BUCKS a tooth!
Holy cow!! My kids get 2 'monies' aka 2 quarters per tooth.
Though once the Tooth Fairy at Grandma's house left $2. So I told them the Tooth Fairy that covers Grandma's territory has less kids in it so she can pay more $$ for her teeth. Luckily they bought it . . phew!!
One of my first collisions with reality: I think I was about 7. I had heard other kids talking about how they put a tooth that had fallen out under their pillows at night and the tooth fairy came and took the tooth and left a quarter or so. When my next tooth fell out, I put it under my pillow. In the morning it was still there. I don't think my parents, one of whom was an immigrant, had ever heard of the tooth fairy.
My son always managed to lose his teeth in snow or eating things like hot dogs outside. Never found them and never got any money for them. But I'd give him nickels so he could "buy a quarter" at the C-store on our block. Turned him into a mercenary little critter who wanted to take over my finances when he was 4.
Most kids I see at the mall or the grocery store should have a couple of their teeth knocked out.
Yeah, but the fairies do get free plastic surgery.
Two dollars? When did the cost per tooth go up? I remember getting .50 cents, it was a happy day when I got $1.
Cheapskate parents driving down the average. I can just hear them. "When I was young I had to eat tootsie rolls to pull my rotten teeth out. Had a full set of dentures by the time I was 12. You kids don't know how good you have it".
The tooth fairy in my area left Susan Bs. Not bad for the late 70s. Still have them.