If you have adopted a large sibling group, or several children close in age, playing tooth fairy can get expensive. Sometimes we adoptive parents go a little overboard on tooth fairy payments because we are so excited to have the opportunity. At our house, the first lost baby tooth placed under a pillow has been known to rake in a five-dollar bill from the tooth fairy. Our dental hygienist, at a recent appointment, told me that she had just paid out five dollars to her adopted daughter for the first baby tooth lost as well. A recent poll from Securian Dental, which runs dental plans, found that on average the tooth fairy shells out $2.09 for each baby tooth.

Apparently, $2.09 is 22 percent higher than the $1.71 that last year’s poll revealed. Included in the poll were 647 parents. Most said that they paid one dollar per tooth, however the second most common payment was five dollars per tooth. While it doesn’t seem too pricey for one tooth, keep in mind that children have 20 baby teeth to lose. One parent polled admitted to paying $50 for the last tooth lost.
The operations manager for the dental plan said that the increase in per tooth average was up because of the $5 per tooth crowd. Apparently, the tooth fairy poll usually reflects the health of the economy. However, this year’s increase is inconsistent with other economic trends according to the news release. Weiland, the company operations manager, indicated that the NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average indices decreased 7.4% and 3.6% over that same period.

Do you play the tooth fairy at your house? If so, how much do you pay per tooth and what is the amount based on? We have three birth children, two are now grownup, and they got between 50 cents and a dollar per tooth lost. I suppose giving our adopted children five dollars is a little disproportionate.

There isn’t a specific reason for our increased generosity. However, we are older parents now, as many adoptive parents are. One of the blessings of being older is being in a better financial position.


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Ateo Fiel’s photo stream uploaded July 5, 2005