Tooth Fairy payments shoot up

It found that parents are now leaving £5 or £10 notes under their children's pillows instead of the more traditional coins due to inflation and wage increases.

Just under one in ten children (9 per cent) get £10 per tooth - amounting to £200 for a full set of all 20 baby teeth. The average payment from the Tooth Fairy is £2.10 per tooth - up from £1.50 five years ago.

Tooth Fairy payments vary according to where you live in the country. London and the south-east has the highest payments - at an average of £2.50 a tooth. The Tooth Fairy is most careful in Newcastle where kids get an average of £1 per lost tooth.

The results come from a new survey of 1,000 parents by Carisbrook Dental in Manchester, Britain's leading private dental practice. It found that 27 per cent of children get a £1 coin for each lost two, 25 per cent get a £2 coin, and 14 per cent get less than £1 - most typically 50p.