Need dental advice: adult teeth coming in behind baby teeth

[american_mama]

Does anyone know the common advice when a child's adult teeth are coming in behind their baby teeth? My 5 year old DD fell against a wall in April and loosened one of her bottom front teeth. It still has not fallen out, but about a month ago, I noticed that the adult tooth was coming in behind. I took her to a general dentist (her first visit) but i really couldn't get an answer out of him except that it would fall out soon. It still hasn't, and now the bottom front tooth next to it has also gotten quite loose and that adult tooth is also coming in behind it.

My fear is that 1) these teeth are not falling out even though it seems like they should have by now 2) there is no room for the adult teeth to come in and thus that will create problems and 3) I think she is a bit young (not even 5 1/2 years) to have lost two teeth.

Should I go to a pediatric dentist or is there really nothing wrong?

[megs4413]

when that happened to me when i was a kid, they pulled the baby teeth...i had an adult tooth come in and break a baby tooth in half and they still had to pull the pieces out cause it didn;t come out on its own...it was annoying.

[egoldber]

Hmm. I would call them back and tell them the tooth has still not fallen out. But I know a handful of 5 year olds who have lost several teeth. Sarah is quite distraught at having not yet lost any. :)

[o_mom]

I think 5.5 yrs is a little early, but not by much. Six or seven seems more average. I have heard of the adult tooth coming in behind from friends. Mostly their dentists say to leave it alone to see if the baby tooth comes out on its own. They may have to pull it later if it doesn't, but nobody seems to get in a big rush. You should be seeing the dentist again in a few months anyway, so it won't be that long to wait. You can always call and ask them over the phone to see if they think it should be coming out sooner.

[JBaxter]

The earliest I ever saw a child loose a tooth was 4 1/2 ( this child also had her 1st perm molars erupt then also) If the tooth is loose encourage her to wiggle wiggle wiggle! It isnt a big issue with the perm teeth coming in behind once the baby tooth is lost it will move up on the arch where it is supposed to be. If the perm teeth are erupting then they are coming in when they are supposed to because there is nothing that hurries up tooth eruption.
5-7 yrs old is the general "average" age to start loosing teeth.

[g-mama]

My ds (age 6.5) started getting his adult teeth in behind his two front bottom baby teeth about 4-6 months before the baby teeth fell out. He was at the pediatric dentist about one month ago (when only one of the 2 had fallen out) and the dentist didn't blink an eye. I thought it was unusual, but she said not at all, in fact it's quite common. It's been fascinating to watch that the two adult teeth gradually move right into place once the babies are gone.



~Kristen

Paolo 11-00
Benjamin 8-03
Marco 12-05

[shilo]

same thing happened to me, altho i didn't 'loose' those two first teeth until i was 9 - we get our teeth really late in my family. all my friends started loosing teeth in kindergarten or first grade, so i think your dd is right on time. twenty years ago, our pedi dentist pulled them to 'make room' for the adult teeth. but it sounds like the more modern practice is to give them plenty of time to fall out on their own.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[Moneypenny]

>twenty
>years ago, our pedi dentist pulled them to 'make room' for the
>adult teeth. but it sounds like the more modern practice is
>to give them plenty of time to fall out on their own.

Yep. I had every single one of my baby teeth extracted by the dentist. Every. Single. One. Now dentists are much more patient.

ETC "they" to "dentists" because I made it sound like my teeth were being more patient.

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif[/img][/url]

[caheinz]

I had an adult tooth come in behind a baby tooth (I think it was one of the canines). They just left it, and it got pulled out when it came time for braces -- maybe 5th or 6th grade? (so, 10-12ish?)

The adult teeth will come in when they're ready to. I don't think a baby tooth can possibly block the way...

[gina]

My older dd went through this too. We called them shark teeth. I honestly don't remember what we did, I think they may have been pulled, but now if it happened I would probably wait it out a while.