A new survey has revealed that payments from the Tooth Fairy are down 10 per cent in Somerset as children lose out due to the cost of living crisis.

The county's average payment from the Tooth Fairy is £1.40 per tooth - down from £1.55 five years ago.

The survey found that in affluent parts of Somerset children get £5, £10 or even £20 notes under pillows instead of the more traditional coins.

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 results come from a survey of 5,000 parents by Dental Phobia, a website set up to help the millions in the UK who fear going to the dentist.

Dental Phobia set up panels throughout the UK to find out how much average Tooth Fairy payments were in all the UK's leading cities and counties.

It found that:

• 27 per cent of children get a £1 coin for each lost tooth;
• 25 per cent get a £2 coin, and 14 per cent get less than £1 - most typically 50p;
• 12 per cent get £5, 9 per cent get £10, 3 per cent get between £10 and £20 and 2 per cent get more than £20.
• 8 per cent never receive a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

A total of 92 per cent of parent said their children under five believed in the Tooth Fairy - the same figure as for Santa Claus. And 36 per cent admitted their children spent their Tooth Fairy money on sweets, with 31 per cent preferring toys, 21 per cent savings, 7 per cent books and 5 per cent clothes.

Dentist Rhona Eskander said: "The Tooth Fairy is feeling the pinch in Somerset like the rest of us.

"Payments are down by 10 per cent over the last five years, but encouragingly the Tooth Fairy is still coming out almost every time a child in Somerset loses a tooth. It is just that they are leaving a little less money.

"As dentists, we find that parents and children who are most excited by the Tooth Fairy and make sure that it visits with each lost tooth also take dental care most seriously, too.

"Tooth Fairy children brush their teeth most regularly with little parental pressure and suffer the least tooth decay.

"The Tooth Fairy makes caring for your teeth a positive part of childhood development and it can reduce the fear of the dentist for many children."

Dr Eskander, a consultant with Dental Phobia, said 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.