Should a child get an allowance for doing their chores, or getting good grades?

The Original Tooth Fairy Poll has typically mirrored the economy’s overall direction, tracking with the trends of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) for 16 of the past 19 years. The Tooth Fairy’s average cash gift just reached $4.70, its highest point in the annual Delta Dental poll’s 23-year history. In Arkansas, as across the South, the Tooth Fairy pays about $4.45, tracking the U.S. average most closely. Baby teeth fetch the least in the Midwest ($3.66), and the most in the North ($5.72) and the West ($5.54). “The annual Tooth Fairy Poll is a bit of light-hearted fun to draw attention to good oral care, starting with baby teeth,” said Dave Hawsey, vice president of marketing at Delta Dental of Arkansas.

And, in an upsetting turn, he lost his lost tooth. Curt Angeli, the principal at Gillett Elementary in Wisconsin, wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy to certify that his first-grade student had actually lost his tooth. Parents and other students were looking everywhere for the lost tooth, but they couldn't find it. The student was worried the Tooth Fairy wouldn't know he had lost his tooth, so Angeli told him he would go get him a note. "Please accept this letter as official verification of a lost tooth and provide the standard monetary exchange rate you normally use for a real tooth," the letter said.