Answer: Teeth
Clues: “Payout” and “Mouth”
Friday is National Tooth Fairy Day. And Delta Dental’s annual poll for it found the average payout per tooth fell 14% since last year.
The average tooth is now worth $5.01, down from $5.84 a year ago. Sorry kids, times are tough. A first tooth is worth a little more, $6.24. But even that dropped 12% from $7.09.
Kids in the South get paid the most, $5.71, followed by kids out West, $5.69, the Northeast, $4.59 and the Midwest, just $3.46 per tooth.
It’s the second year in a row payouts have fallen. The overall average hit an all-time high of $6.23 a tooth back in 2023.
The Tooth Fairy has still outpaced inflation though. When the poll launched in 1998, the average was $1.30 per tooth. That’s like $2.55 today.