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MILLCREEK — With higher prices on food, fuel, airfare — nearly everything else — in the pandemic's aftermath, it sure seems like inflation has been kicking us in the teeth. Just ask the tooth fairy.
The dental sprite has to shell out a whole lot more for lost teeth these days. Just how much is a lost tooth worth?
"Well, mine (children) haven't started losing teeth yet, but I was thinking around a dollar," Caroline Foster told us.
'The tooth fairy that visits our house only gives a dollar," Heather Robbins said.
That is a mere trinket compared to the average treasure the tooth fairy dishes out. Dental insurer Delta Dental asked 1,000 moms and pops, and get this: The average lost tooth gets a whopping $6.23.
"That seems crazy to me," Foster said.
"It's a little pricey, I think," Manuel Vanegas commented.
Today's $6.23 is nearly double the $3.70 a lost tooth was fetching just four years ago. And it's almost five times higher than 25 years ago, when the tooth fairy usually left $1.30 per tooth.
To get a little context on the history of tooth fairy payouts, we decided to drop in at the Millcreek Senior Center to ask folks what sort of treasure they could expect to find under their pillows.
"It was usually 10, 15, 25 cents," George Holt remembered.
Marshall Hill said he "can remember a nickel and a dime."
"I might have only gotten a nickel," Peggy Lenz said while Sherry Poulson said, "Twenty-five cents was the most, that was for something pretty major."
"About a dime is all," remembered Becky Markosian. "One dime, 10 cents."
Inflation though, has not quite run away for her family. Her granddaughter just recently snagged a quarter for her lost tooth. And news flash: She said she saw the actual tooth fairy!
"I didn't say anything," was her response when she was asked if she said anything to the tooth fairy.
Here is something else that might leave you speechless: Based on Delta Dental's survey, by 2048 the tooth fairy will be paying over $30 bucks for one, just one, lost tooth.
So, 20 baby teeth at $30 each — the tooth fairy may have to start taking out loans.
