For many American children, the tooth fairy can be counted on to make losing a tooth, a very profitable event. So exactly, how much is she putting under pillows these days?

Did you know that, on average, a child in the Midwest receives $2.83 per tooth lost? That may seem like a lot to parents who remember finding a dime or a quarter underneath their pillows. However, compared to the average payout in the Southern states of $5.17, the parents of the Midwest seem to be pretty conservative!

Delta Dental (dental insurance provider) did a survey of more than 1,000 primary caregivers to get the average payout results. They also found that over the period of 1999 to 2014 that the national gift average for the tooth fairy was pretty consistent with the ebbs and flows of the stock market.

So next time your kids ask what they can expect from the tooth fairy…maybe they should start following the stock market. 🙂