They Are Just Baby Teeth, Why Fix Them?
They are just baby teeth, why fix them?
Most babies get their first tooth around 6 or 7 months of age; usually the bottom front two incisors. Some kids are a little slower erupting the first tooth causing parental worry. It can be even around 12 months for the first one to poke through. Additional baby teeth will continue to come in till almost three years of age. There really is a lot of variability on the sequence. Don’t feel bad if your child does not get his teeth just like your neighbor’s baby or even his own twin sister. This is important: look at the chart below and you will see that some baby teeth START falling out around 5-6 years old (again give or take a little), but the back molars do not fall out till around 12 years of age!
If your child develops a cavity in a baby tooth the decay will slowly (and sometimes rapidly) get bigger and deeper. If the tooth is really close to falling out, we have the option of just leaving it alone. If it looks like it may be a while till it would normally fall out, we need to do something. Otherwise you are in for ugly teeth, toothaches, infection and more extensive dental work.
A small cavity can be filled with a white filling, a medium cavity can be filled, but a deep or large cavity may need a crown to cover the whole tooth. If the tooth is in the back, the crown may be silver in color. It may even need a Pulpotomy or “nerve treatment”. So, get it fixed early when it is small (and less expensive)!
Remember baby teeth are there for a reason. They give the child something to chew with and (importantly) they often save space for the permanent teeth. Why don't you just pull it? Well, sometimes that is the best option, but if a back baby tooth is lost too early, without followup treatment, additional crowding problems that are often more difficult to correct will occur. So you usually will need additional work like a Space Maintainer. That's one reason why it's often easier to fix a baby tooth than just remove it.
Here is an ADA eruption chart for general reference:
posted by Dr. Dean Brandon @ 4:20 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
My child is 4 1/2 & she has 11 cavities. Obviously I have not done a great job up to now, though the hygenist said because her teeth are very close together, only flossing would have prevented the cavities. I am now flossing and doing a flouride rinse in addition to brushing w/Oral B rotating head brush. They want to take care of the cavities in 5 appointment: front teeth and then by quadrant. We basically have HMO type dental. Is this a normal number of appointments for such a young child to have to go through? My husband thinks it's excessive & I really don't know. Do all cavities need to be filled even if they are small? Or can better maintenance by me keep them from progressing and avoid the need for fillings in these baby teeth?
I'm glad you commented, as you ask questions many parents ask. First, realize flossing does help, but I see kids/parents that brush and floss great and the kid still has problems with cavities. Those cavities in between are very hard to prevent especially if the kid is "prone" or vulnerable to getting cavities due to other factors, some of which we can't control. Although "weak spots" (the beginning of cavities) may remineralize with luck and usually not with baby molars, you have to remember that once a cavity starts it will get worse even with great brushing/flossing. Every day I see kids who look pretty good but x-rays reveal multiple cavities between the teeth (usually the back molars).
Most four year olds do well for dental work, but they can't sit in the chair for long. So we usually break up the work into managable appointments. Also, if the areas are in different parts of the mouth and need to be numbed up, well you can't just load up multiple areas with anesthetic at one time, you have to watch the dosage. Sometimes you can do more work at one time with premedication or sedation because with the medicine, the child can tolarate longer appointments or we can work faster sometimes. These kids are really young, they are not adults.
The only cavities I do not fill/fix are on teeth that are asymptomatic and will be falling out in a short time and are unlikely to become a problem. Somtimes they can just be removed if they become a problem before then, as it is close to the normal time they would fall out. (See the chart-many teeth do not fall out till 12 years of age)!
It is easier to fix a tooth with a small filling than a large cavity that requires a pulpotomy and a crown or even extraction due to abscess and a space maintainer. --and it isn't very long before you reach that point in many cases. -- Good luck, I hope things work out well for you.
My soon to be 5-years old has two teeth growing behind front-center-bottom baby teeth. The baby teeth doesn't appear to be loose and he hasn't complained about being in pain. Should I have his baby teeth pulled?
I see this all the time. Please see my post on this here:
Permanent Teeth Coming in Behind Baby Teeth
My son is 10 months old. He has recently just got his first tooth. It is his top right lateral incisor. Is this okay? I was always told that children get their top and bottom two teeth first.
Sometimes I see baby teeth coming in in an odd order like you mentioned. A slightly out of the ordinary pattern is not unusual. In addition you can see there is a lot of overlap in the eruption chart above.
By the way remember that a Child's First Dental Visit should be by about one year of age.
I have a 16 month old with a cavity on his upper front tooth. It doesn't cause him any discomfort and my husband and I REALLY don't want to have him sedated in order to fill it. Are there any other options and is it absolutely necessary to have it filled at this time? Could we wait a couple of years until he would be more cooperative without sedation? Thank You!
It is sometimes ok to wait a while due to a very young age. I don't like to sedate one year olds if at all possible. However, you can't wait too long as cavities get larger/deeper with time. (you may have more extensive treatment needs if the cavity is much larger). Sometimes a small cavity needing just a filling can get so bad within one year that it needs to be removed. Ask your dentist if it's ok to wait and keep an eye one it for a while--that means regular checkups to have them take a look. Also, sometimes if it is very small and in the front it doesn't take long to just get it done quickly without sedation "hold and go" I call it--not much harder than cleaning the teeth. --depends on a lot of factors like your preference, doctors recommendation, and the depth/size of the cavity.
I have a 3 3/4 daughter that took a fairly bad spill last week. She fractured one front tooth and the smaller tooth right beside it. The pediatric dentist recommends pulling both fractured teeth and suggests we pull the other front tooth. However, the third tooth is simply for "appearances". She made it clear that because that tooth is "bucked" it is going to look very awkward with only one tooth in the front. She did say she could do a fixed partial but I worry about so many things. How will we know when her permanent teeth are coming through? What if she has another accident - what damage will she do to her gums if the partial comes out? My biggest fear is speech [without three front teeth] and the fact that she is a thumb sucker. The dentist worries about the damage she will do with no teeth at all - she states the gums and permanent teeth will be impacted.
Missing front baby tooth do not affect speech development. You may want to read also my post on fake baby teeth pedo partials.
My granddaughter was 2 when a dentist pulled four of her front teeth, because of cavities, my daughter said that she was told they would grow back by the time she was 7 she will be 7 this year. Should she be concerned because there is no sign of any teeth growing back?
Lots of variation when they come in, but 7-8 is normal. If you have an x-ray made, that will show how close they are.
My son is going to be 12 years old in 4 months. He has a very small/ barely visible cavity (grey spot) on what I just found out to be a baby tooth. The dentist we went to, wanted me to pay $728 for sedation so he could fill the cavity and seal his molars. I said no, we used gas and sealed the cavity instead of filling it. The dentist did not tell me that the tooth was a baby tooth. I only found this out from the insurance company because they won't cover the sealant for a baby tooth. Why was this dentist so set on filling this tooth? I also had to pay $300 up front and they said they would refund what I didn't use. ($209 according to my insurance company) Did I pick the wrong dentist for my son to go to? This is the first time we have gone to this dentist and probably the last. I have never had to overpay up front like that before.
I cannot comment on your specific case. I will say it is not uncommon to request a down payment prior to costly procedures.
My daughter is turning 5 in a couple of weeks and her top front tooth just fell out. Isn't it too early for her teeth to start falling out? Should I be concerned?
Some 5 year olds are loosing teeth. Still, I suggest getting a dentist to check it out.
Yesterday my 21 month old brother fell and he knocked his front tooth out. What should be done? This is the baby tooth but it looks like it's a permanent one because it's long with a root. So I'm not sure what should be done about this? Can he have a fake tooth in that place or is there any options of what can be done about
that?
May want to read my other posts on this subject.
My 4 year old son recently went in for his cleaning, and they found 2 cavities. Due to his young age, they referred us to a pediatric dentist, who found the 2 cavities, plus 2 others in between the teeth. The recommendation for him was 3 pulpotomies, and 3 crowns. Would we be able to do fillings instead, or are the crowns a must?
Depends. Sometimes crowns are the best option. Check out my other posts on these and related topics.
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