The richest kids get as much as £400 for a full set of baby teeth

Payments from the Tooth Fairy are down by 10% to an average of £1.90 per gnasher, according to a new survey.

A small minority of youngsters (2%) get as much as £20 for each tooth that falls out – amounting to £400 for a full set of all 20 baby teeth, but average payments across the UK are down.

London and the South-East have the highest figure with an average of £2.25 a tooth – down 10% from £2.50 four years ago.

The Tooth Fairy is most careful in Newcastle where kids get an average of 80p per lost tooth – a 20% slump on 2015’s figure.

The results came from a new survey of 2,000 parents by cosmetic dental brand Your Smile Direct.

The survey found that average payments nationally had dropped by 10% from £2.10 to £1.90 since 2015.

More than a quarter (28%) of children get a £1 coin for each lost tooth, 24% get a £2 coin, and 14% get less than £1 – most typically 50p.

A further 11% get £5, 10% get £10, 3% get between £10 and £20 and 2% get more than £20. Only 8% of kids never receive a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

Nine out of ten parents (91%) said their children under five believed in the Tooth Fairy – the same figure as for Santa Claus. More than a third of parents (34%) said their children spent their Tooth Fairy money on sweets.

A further 33% spent it on toys, with saving (21%), books (7%) and clothes (5%) the other most popular answers.

Most children have a full set of 20 milk or baby teeth by the age of three and start losing them by the age of five or six. They tend to fall out in the same order they came, with the front centre lower teeth going first.

It takes six or more years to grow a full set of 28 adult teeth – 32 if you include wisdom teeth which arrive right at the back of the mouth around the age of 20.

Your Smile Direct offers dentist prescribed invisible aligner treatment which patients use at home – removing the need for repeated, costly dental visits. It costs £1,599 – around a quarter of the price of teeth straightening with conventional dentists.

Average payments from the Tooth Fairy across the UK

1. London and the South-East  – £2.25
2. Bristol  – £1.70
3. Aberdeen £1.68
4. Cardiff  – £1.64
5. Birmingham £1.58
6. Leeds – £1.46
7. Manchester – £1.40
8. Belfast £1.34
9. Edinburgh £1.28
10. Coventry £1.26
11. Leicester £1.22
12. Nottingham £1.18
13. Plymouth £1.15
14. Sheffield £1.12
15. Liverpool £1.05
16. Sunderland £1
17. Glasgow  95p
18. Bradford 91p
19. Wakefield 85p
20. Newcastle 80p

What do children buy with their Tooth Fairy money?
1. Sweets 34%
2. Toys 33%
3. They save it 21%
4. Books 7%
5. Clothes 5%