When Claer Barrett, a London-based editor, filed her newspaper column a few weeks ago, it didn't take long for her to realize she had hit a major nerve with its subject matter.

A dental nerve.

The personal finance editor for the Financial Times had proposed the unthinkable in a recent column: Killing off the tooth fairy.

Her logic? In making our kids' first interaction with money a fanciful one, where cash suddenly appears under their pillows from a "magical source," we are doing them a disservice.

Predictably, Barrett's email inbox blew up.

"I had to call for the death of the tooth fairy to make my wider point about personal finance education," Barrett says.

"Many people were angry with me for denying children the fantasy of believing in the tooth fairy, but I argued that they needed to know about financial reality. The tooth fairy is the just tip of the iceberg."

After all, if you introduce young minds to that kind of magical thinking, it can persist for years -- in terms of not realizing that money has to be earned, not appreciating the true value of a dollar, and not realizing that their latest must-have iPad or smartphone comes with a huge price tag.

Valuable Milk Teeth

Indeed, the tooth fairy has become a rather big business.

According to the Original tooth fairy Poll by Delta Dental, the average reward for a lost tooth in the U.S. in 2014 was a whopping $4.36 from $3.50 a year ago, up by about 25 percent.

On the flip side, some financial experts say it may be an over reaction to make the tooth fairy vanish for good. After all, to a young child, having teeth fall out of your mouth could be a frightening thing, and the promise of a reward might ease the pain.

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