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Parents are set to pay out £23.4 million this year, as the credit crunch and soaring food and fuel prices fail to dent the generosity of the tooth fairy.

Research by the Children's Mutual show the average tooth earns a child £1.22 – a rise of 16 per cent in the last year, 4.8 times higher than inflation.

Over the last 25 years tooth fairy payments have risen 258 per cent.

With 20 milk teeth each to earn from, the UK's under-12s are chewing on £204 million. Meanwhile their parents had to put up with just £6.80 for their full set of milk teeth.

In London, one in ten children receive £5 per tooth.

As an investment asset class, children are advised to hold on to their milk teeth for as long as possible as at the current rate next year a tooth will be worth £1.42, while on two years it will be worth £1.64.

However, children should be warned the value of their dental investments may go down as well as up – historically strong growth is no guarantee of future performance.

Some financial advisors may even suggest that, given the existing economic uncertainties, the value of their assets to the tooth fairy may have peaked and it may be worth cashing in.

The shocking rise on tooth fairy inflation – outstripping even petrol prices – is in part put down to peer pressure among parents.

More than one in five (21 per cent) think they pay too much and nearly one in six (16 per cent) feel compelled to give their child the ‘market rate’ for a tooth.

However, David White, chief executive of The Children’s Mutual, is calling on parents to turn the tooth fairy into a savings fairy

He said: "Parents may think that being the tooth fairy is an expensive business, but the tooth fairy can help them talk to their children about the value of money.

"And for those parents determined to ‘stick to their gums’ and avoid fairy pressure, perhaps they can persuade their children to consider saving their tooth money and get into good money habits from an early age."

In England, the origins of the tooth fairy are said to have started back in the 13th century, with stories of old witches who would lynch young children and use their teeth to make potions. Nowadays, the tales around tooth fairies are far more timid, with the teeth being used to build fairy castles, ward off witches