In 1998, Delta Dental, the largest dental insurer in the US, began conducting an annual nationwide poll to determine how much money children received from the tooth fairy. American parents put a lot of time, effort, and, of course, money into convincing children the Tooth Fairy is real. Lydia’s level of commitment is impressive, but not out of the ordinary. But for a few hours, Lydia was afraid a currency mix-up might give the game away. “We asked every vendor, shopkeeper, and hotel desk person at the place if they had even one of those gold coins,” Lydia recalls, “and the answer across the board was no.”įortunately, the loose tooth dangled until the family got home and the tooth fairy could run to the bank. Their family was staying on the resort it was after banking hours. But after a few years of this tradition, when her daughter got a loose tooth at Disneyland, Lydia panicked. That seemed like a touch of tooth fairy whimsy that wouldn’t be too much work. When Lydia’s daughter began losing her baby teeth, Lydia decided that instead of dollar bills, she’d leave gold dollar coins under her pillow - three coins per tooth.
