Metropolitan Diary: What's the Going Rate for a Tooth? It seems that the tooth fairy still visits children to celebrate the loss of a tooth, or often more than one. When my sisters and I were little, it was a quarter per tooth. Now it has risen to a dollar. What I have learned is there are other options besides money. My granddaughter in Midtown Manhattan just lost her second tooth. She placed it under her pillow. The next morning she discovered what the tooth fairy had left her: a gift card to Whole Foods!