Tooth Fairy Calculator

How much does the Tooth Fairy give in 2026?

The Tooth Fairy left an average of $5.84 per tooth in the Delta Dental Original Tooth Fairy Poll® released on February 25, 2026. That's up 17% from $5.01 a year earlier. A first tooth averaged $7.17, about 23% more than other teeth, and 38% of parents said the Tooth Fairy pays extra for the first one. To plan ahead, check which tooth is likely to come out next.

Cash isn't the only currency. In the 2026 poll, 32% of children got a non-cash gift, up from 19% in 2025.

The poll asks 1,000 parents of children ages 6 to 12 each January (January 5–15 for the 2026 edition; margin of error ±3%). Results come out in late February, so the "2026" poll mostly reflects what the Tooth Fairy paid during 2025.

Tooth Fairy rates by region

The poll reports four regions, not states. To turn your state into a region, the calculator uses the U.S. Census Bureau's four regions, which we assume the poll follows. Regional numbers come from smaller groups of parents than the national average, so they jump around more from year to year. The Midwest's 52% rise in 2026 is a good example.

History of Tooth Fairy rates

When the poll started in 1998, the Tooth Fairy left $1.30 a tooth. Delta Dental names each poll by the year it's released.

A dash means we couldn't find a published value we could check. We also couldn't verify national averages for 1999 to 2016, so the chart above starts in 2017.

Has the Tooth Fairy beaten inflation? By a mile. Adjusted with the Consumer Price Index, 1998's $1.30 is worth about $2.62 in January 2026. Today's $5.84 is more than twice that. Adjusted for inflation, the highest year in the table is the 2023 poll: $6.23 then, about $6.77 in today's money.

The older Visa survey

For a few years, Visa also ran a Tooth Fairy survey, by phone each summer.

Visa asked different people, in a different way, at a different time of year, so its numbers can't be joined to the Delta Dental series. Compare each series only with itself.

Ideas beyond cash

With a third of kids getting something other than money, here are a few ideas that fit under a pillow:

• A note or letter from the Tooth Fairy (print one above)
• A new toothbrush in a fun color, or a small tube of kids' toothpaste
• A book about losing teeth
• Golden dollar coins or a crisp bill, for the cash-but-special crowd
• A "tooth receipt" that kids can collect for every tooth

For brushing motivation between visits, the Kids Brushing Timer has a printable sticker chart.

Printables: certificate, receipt and letter

Below the calculator you can make three printable designs:

• Certificate of Tooth Collection with your child's name, the tooth, the date and the amount, signed by the Chief Tooth Collector.
• Tooth Exchange receipt, like a real shop receipt, with a "Tooth Received" stamp.
• Letter from the Tooth Fairy, with a special line for a first tooth.

Pick the tooth by name ("bottom left front tooth"), and print. The Add to Tooth Fairy log button keeps a private record of every visit and its amount in My Smile, so you remember what you gave for tooth number one when tooth number fourteen comes along. The Baby Teeth Tracker records the dates each tooth came in and fell out, and links back here.

How this tool works

1. Poll amount. The starting point is the 2026 poll average for your region, or the US average if you don't pick one.
2. First tooth. For the US, it uses the poll's first-tooth average ($7.17). For a region, it multiplies the regional average by the national first-tooth ratio ($7.17 ÷ $5.84 ≈ 1.23), because the poll doesn't publish regional first-tooth values.
3. Family style. These turn the poll amount into cash-friendly amounts. Thrifty rounds down to a whole dollar. Typical rounds up to a whole dollar. Generous is the next $5 step above typical. These are our rounding rules, not poll numbers; the exact poll average is always shown next to them.
4. Lifetime cost. Children lose 20 baby teeth. If none are lost yet, it counts the first tooth at the first-tooth amount and 19 more at the regular amount. Otherwise, it multiplies the teeth still to come by the regular amount. Then it multiplies by the number of children.
5. Inflation. The "2026 dollars" view multiplies each year's average by the ratio of the January 2026 Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) to that year's January value, since the poll is taken in January.

Updated each February. We refresh these numbers when the new Original Tooth Fairy Poll® comes out in late February. Delta Dental and Original Tooth Fairy Poll are trademarks of their owners; this site isn't affiliated with them.

Limits: a poll average describes what other families do, not what you should do. Any amount, or a heartfelt note, is the right amount for your family.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Delta Dental of Virginia (national Delta Dental release). The Tooth Fairy gives kids a raise. February 25, 2026. Accessed October 26, 2026.
2. CPA Practice Advisor. "Tooth Fairy" Poll Shows Drop in Value. February 25, 2025. Accessed October 26, 2026.
3. FOX6 Milwaukee. Here's how much money the Tooth Fairy gives on average per tooth. 2024. Accessed October 26, 2026.
4. Delta Dental of Virginia. Tooth Fairy giving continues record pace. February 27, 2023. Accessed October 26, 2026.
5. Delta Dental of Iowa. Tooth Fairy sets new record high for value of a lost tooth. February 23, 2022. Accessed October 26, 2026.
6. Dentistry Today. Tooth Fairy Gifts Average $4.70 Per Tooth. February 23, 2021. Accessed October 26, 2026.
7. Orthodontic Products. Tooth Fairy Average Cash Gift Reaches All-Time High. February 23, 2021. Source of the 2020 poll value ($4.03), stated as the prior year. Accessed October 26, 2026.
8. Dentistry Today. Tooth Fairy Gifts Down 43 Cents in 2019. February 22, 2019. Accessed October 26, 2026.
9. Chicago Sun-Times (USA TODAY). Survey: Tooth Fairy's 2016 cash payouts hit all-time high. February 26, 2017. Accessed October 26, 2026.
10. DrBicuspid. Survey: Tooth fairy leaving 23% more in 2013. September 5, 2013. Accessed October 26, 2026.
11. DentistryIQ. Breaking! Tooth Fairy tightens purse strings: Down 8 percent from 2013. August 21, 2014. Accessed October 26, 2026.
12. CPA Practice Advisor. 2015 Tooth Fairy Index Shows Current Market Value of a Tooth. August 17, 2015. Accessed October 26, 2026.
13. U.S. Census Bureau. Census Regions and Divisions of the United States. Accessed October 26, 2026.
14. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average (CPIAUCNS). Accessed October 26, 2026.

Last reviewed October 26, 2026 by the Dental Health Time editorial team, against the sources above. How we review.