Losing baby teeth is an exciting milestone for your child. By the age of three, children have a full set of baby teeth that remain in their mouths until they start falling out. Each kid is different, but you can expect a child to lose a first tooth around age six or seven. The dental team from A Healthy Smile Dentistry in Florham Park offers the following top tips to help make losing baby teeth a positive experience for you and your kids.
Baby Teeth Timeline
Each child is different and can lose his or her first tooth earlier or later than expected. As a general rule, the first baby tooth falls out when the child is around six or seven, but kids have lost baby teeth as early as four. If your child does lose a baby tooth at age four or younger, contact a dentist immediately. Losing baby teeth early could be a sign of a dental issue like tooth decay. An accident or fall could also result in a child losing a baby tooth early and requires emergency dental care. It is also important to consult a dentist if your child is over the age of seven and has not lost any baby teeth. A pediatric dentist will perform a dental exam and take x-rays to determine if there’s an underlying cause for the delay.
Most children lose their front teeth first. This is because teeth have a tendency to fall out in the same order as they first erupted. By the age of three, all 20 baby teeth will have fully erupted. Children start to lose the teeth because permanent teeth form below the gum line and destroy the roots of the baby teeth. Typically, baby teeth fall out before a permanent tooth erupts, but sometimes both sets of teeth are present in the socket. This creates two rows of teeth and may require monitoring from a dentist. Eventually, the baby tooth should fall out without any intervention.
Baby teeth fall out over a period of several years. However, most baby teeth, including the molars shed by the time the child is 12 years old. After a baby tooth fall out, the permanent tooth will come in usually within six months.
Caring for a Loose Tooth
Once a permanent tooth starts to erupt, the baby tooth loosens and starts to wiggle around. Loose teeth take between a few days to a few weeks to finally fall out. Your best bet is to encourage your child to leave the tooth alone and allow the process to happen naturally. If your child keeps wiggling the tooth, it will fall out much sooner. Wiggling is fine, but your child should avoid pulling or yanking on the tooth. Yanking a tooth out before its ready could increase your child’s chance of infection. If a loose tooth still hasn’t fallen out after a few months or your little one feels any pain, make an appointment with a pediatric dentist.
While a tooth is loose, don’t become lax on your kid’s oral care routine. He or she should still brush twice daily for two minutes at a time. Brush the loose tooth, but be gentle and use a soft-bristled toothbrush. Floss daily too.
Immediate Care After Losing a Tooth
Prepare your child for what to expect when a loose tooth finally falls out. Tell him or her that some bleeding and discomfort are perfectly normal once the tooth finally comes out. Stop any bleeding with a clean cloth or gauze. Once the bleeding stops, rinse the mouth out with warm salt water. This sterilizes the mouth and also rinses out any of the blood residue. If the child complains of any pain, you could use an oral anesthetic that temporarily numbs the area to provide immediate relief. Another option for any discomfort is to give the child an over-the-counter pain relief medicine like ibuprofen. Drinking a lot of cold water or eating popsicles can also help if your kid complains that his or her mouth hurts.
Loose Tooth Emergencies
One of the biggest fears of parents is if a child accidentally swallows his or her baby tooth. The good news is swallowing a tooth poses no health risk to your kid and doesn’t require emergency care. Like most objects that are swallowed by children, a tooth will pass through the digestive system and be passed within the stools.
However, it may be a dental emergency if your kid loses a tooth through some sort of injury. Trauma from an accident like a fall or sports injury could knock a baby tooth or permanent tooth out of the mouth. Baby teeth that fall out early may not be an issue, but you should still follow up with your dentist. If a permanent tooth falls out, retrieve the tooth if possible and only touch the crown, not the root. Rinse the tooth with water only, not using any cleaning agents. Attempt to have the child place the tooth back into the socket while holding it in place with gauze. If you’re unable to secure the tooth in the mouth, store it in a clean container with milk. Contact your dentist and bring the tooth into the office for your emergency appointment. Your dental provider will rinse out the child’s mouth and evaluate whether the tooth can be re-implanted or not. Typically, the length of time that the tooth has been out of the child’s mouth determines if it can be saved or not. That’s why you must call a dentist immediately after the permanent tooth is knocked out.
A Healthy Smile Dentistry offers family, cosmetic, and pediatric dentistry services in Florham Park, New Jersey. Contact us today to make an appointment for your kids with one of our dental providers. Each dentist on our team is friendly and attentive, providing gentle care to even the littlest of patients.