How much should the Tooth Fairy pay?
What's the going rate for a wobbly tooth these days?
Ex-One Directioner Zayn Mailk reportedly gave his daughter £500 for losing her first tooth. This raised a few eyebrows – and an obvious question: what exactly is the going rate rate for a missing tooth in 2026?
For most of us, the tooth fairy dealt in loose change. But this was much easier in the 1990s, when people carried cash and you could actually buy something with a 20p. As with everything else, prices have crept up since then. A 2023 survey put the figure at about £2.50 ($3.35). Not quite £500, but not pocket change either.
If you’re a parent, getting the first payment right really matters. Behavioural economists call this ‘anchoring’: we rely heavily on the first number we see in a new situation. If an older sibling receives £5 for their first missing tooth, this will be established as the “correct price” in the household. Offer anything less to their younger sibling, and you will face outrage. But offer anything more, and you will find yourself trying to explain inflation to a furious eldest child.
From this first tooth, a whole pricing structure emerges where first teeth command a premium, and very painful extractions might earn a bonus. And thanks to the school playground, children are acutely aware of the local market rate. It is very hard to insist that the tooth fairy is real, and gave your child £2.50 when their best friend got £5 for their front tooth.
If one generous parent raises the going rate, others tend to follow. Multiply that across a group of thirty children, each with twenty wobbly teeth and the financial hit is huge. The class will get £1,500 more for their baby teeth.
But in reality, even economists don’t think about it in purely economic terms. Losing teeth is a marker of growing up, and parents want to mark it as much as their children do. Seen in this light, Malik’s £500 looks more like a special gift – a way of giving your child a pot of savings as you might on a milestone birthday. I could also be reading too much economics into it. After all, he is a very rich pop star.