What should you do if an adult tooth is growing behind the baby teeth?
Around the age of 6, children will begin to lose their deciduous teeth and permanent adult teeth will grow into these spaces shortly afterwards. However, sometimes the adult teeth begin to grow in a row behind the baby teeth. This is sometimes referred to as shark teeth in reference to the rows of teeth that sharks have,
What do I do if my child’s adult teeth start growing before the baby teeth fall out?
Firstly, do not panic! This is a very common occurrence for the lower front teeth in children as they transition into adult teeth. In the majority of cases, it is a self-correcting condition that doesn’t require further treatment.
If the baby tooth is even slightly loose, encourage the child to wiggle the tooth daily to further loosen the tooth. The baby tooth will usually fall out by itself without needing further intervention.
Less commonly, if the baby teeth are not loose at all or have been loose but have not been able to be wiggled out by itself, the baby teeth may need to be extracted. Please contact us to make an appointment so your child can be assessed by one of our dentists.
The baby teeth finally fell out but now the adult teeth are in the wrong position behind the rest of the teeth. What should I do?
After the baby tooth is lost, the adult teeth will be pushed forward by the force of the tongue and migrate into the correct vacant position in line with the rest of the teeth.
Will my child have crowding and need orthodontics to straighten their teeth?
When a child first begins to transition into adult teeth, it will be another 6-7 years on average before they lose their last baby tooth. It is difficult to determine from a very early age if there will be crowding once all the permanent teeth are in their final positions. We recommend for your child to visit the dentist at least every year during this transitional period to monitor your child’s development so that a referral to an orthodontist can be made in a timely manner if it is determined that there could be a benefit achieved by doing orthodontics.
If you have any concerns about your child’s dental development, please contact the team at Peninsula Dental Care to arrange an appointment.