Lost your baby teeth?
“All my friends have lost baby teeth, how come I haven’t?”, the child asks us, always expecting us to be able to do something about it!
We get this question so often from kids and their parents. They are so desperate to see the tooth fairy!
So what’s the timeline you should be looking for before getting worried?
Well here is a table to guide you!
Baby tooth guide
General rules for baby teeth loss
Now the general rules we go by:
- Give it +/- 6-12 months from the guide
- Girls generally tend to develop teeth quicker than boys
- If they were late developing their baby teeth, sometimes this will be apparent in their adult teeth as well
- Siblings are also a good guide! E.g. missing/impacted teeth have a strong genetic component as well
This is another reason we mention to start bringing kids earlier. There are some situations where kids may be missing certain adult teeth OR the adult teeth could be impacted. Situations like this are best found sooner rather than later so we can plan proper treatment for the future.
Generally if we are having any doubts, we take a full mouth X-ray. “X-ray on a kid?”, I hear you ask, “Is it necessary?”.
Definitely! The dose of dental x-rays are so low nowadays and the benefits are so great. The OPG (full mouth x-ray) shows up all the adult and baby teeth so we can ensure all the teeth are present and that there are no other abnormalities. We can also check the tooth positions at that time and see if any intervention is required. It’s generally a good idea to take an OPG as a screening when they’re in their mixed dentition phase (which means when they have a mix of both adult and baby teeth), which is about 7-9 years old.
At the end of the day, if you’re not sure, come in and have a chat to us. It’s always better to be sure 🙂
*P.S. Poster does not guarantee tooth fairy arrival upon loss of tooth. Click here to check your child’s eligibility for the $1095 Kids Dental under the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Scheme.
