Losing teeth

[mythreesuns]

My ds will be 7 on May 5th. He has not lost a single tooth. None of them are even remotely loose. I mean...they will eventually come out on their own...right?

[ChristaN]

Yes they will! Kids whose baby teeth grew in later than average tend to also have them fall out later than average. My dd's friend didn't lose her first tooth until around her 7th bd. I believe that anytime btwn about 5-9 is normal for baby teeth to start falling out.

If you ever watch that kids TV show called Arthur on PBS they address this issue on one of their episodes where Arthur is the only kid in his class who hasn't lost a tooth yet. The dentist explains to him the normal time frame. It is kind of nice for kids if they are getting upset to have a cartoonized version of what is normal.

[3boysmom]

Not necessarily. My middle ds had to have 4 of his baby teeth pulled right around his 8th birthday because they were not budging and the adult teeth were trying to come out around them. Our dentist put it off as long as he felt he could to see if they would come out on their own, but finally we decided that we'd rather pull than have the other teeth come out all messed up. He took x-rays to make sure that the adult teeth were indeed there and trying to come out. He pulled all four teeth in about 10 minutes flat, ds felt no pain at all, and he was able to swim in a swim meet within a few hours. The adult teeth came in within about a week - clearly they were waiting for those baby teeth to get the heck out of the way!

[frogguruami]

They will not necesarily fall out on their own but most likely will. Just keep an eye on the adult teeth and make sure they aren't coming in and you should be fine.

[ChristaN]

I have seen adult try to make their way in before the baby teeth fall out as well. Our dentist said that the two (baby teeth falling out and adult teeth coming in) are not related -- they each have their own timeframe for when they will do it. The reason I asked was b/c my dd had two baby teeth fall out and it took about 6 months before the adult teeth even started to come in. So, I guess it could present a problem if the adult teeth are on an earlier time scale than the baby teeth are.

[Marsupialmom]

Not loosing teeth at 7 isn't completely abnormal but it wouldn't hurt to maybe consent to x-rays for his next appointment.

Have you looked into his mouth to see if his adult teeth are comming in behind? If so you might need teeth pull.

My dd has issues with her baby teeth not "desolving" like they are suppose to so we have had to have a few removed.