Here’s What You Should Do If Your Kid Loses a Tooth

On average, children get their first teeth (or baby teeth) at the age of two or three. When the baby teeth begin to fall out, around the age of five or six, the permanent teeth push through and take their place. This whole process is natural, but, sometimes complications happen in the process and make it difficult for the permanent teeth to erupt properly. In some cases, children can even lose their permanent teeth due to trauma in an accident or while playing. The tooth comes out of the socket with the root and is a common reason for parents to worry. Do not worry because restorative dentistry has the solutions to these problems.

The Process of Tooth Loss in Kids

A child gets their baby teeth around the age of 3 and starts losing them around the age of 5. The teeth are fully replaced by permanent teeth around the age of 7. The pattern of the tooth-loss matches the pattern of the eruption of baby teeth. It means the teeth that appeared first will be the first to fall out. Generally, the teeth that first show up are the front lower incisors and those are the first teeth that fall out.

Issues with the Untimely Falling of Baby Teeth

Once the baby teeth fall, the permanent teeth are supposed to erupt from the same space. This process, if interrupted due to some inherent complication, causes crowding of the permanent tooth. Sometimes, children lose their teeth too early or too late. This affects the timing of the eruption of permanent teeth, causing them to come out to be crooked (if the baby teeth fall out late) or crowded (if the baby teeth fall out early) at places. This abnormality of the permanent teeth can be dealt with restorative dentistry.

Orthodontic Issues in Kids and How to Deal with Them

Kids may have orthodontic issues due to the falling of baby teeth or loss of permanent teeth in an accident. A pediatric dentist has solutions for the various orthodontic issues in kids.

Premature Tooth Loss

Sometimes, baby teeth fall out before the time of eruption of the permanent teeth. This is either due to trauma or tooth decay. This leads to loss of space in the mouth for permanent teeth and causes crowding. An orthodontist should be consulted in order to put a spacer between the teeth to prevent loss of space in the mouth for permanent teeth.

Late Tooth Loss

Sometimes, a kid can grow to 8 years of age without losing any baby teeth. Generally, there is no issue if this occurs but you should still visit a pediatric orthodontist to get an x-ray and make sure there is no complication in the growth of permanent teeth.

Missing Teeth

Sometimes, a child might be missing an underlying adult tooth and the loss of baby teeth might occur in that area. So if the baby tooth falls later on, a replacement for the tooth is needed to maintain the shape of the bite.

Extra Tooth

There are cases where a child can have extra baby teeth. This occurrence can cause damage to the permanent tooth and block its eruption.

What You Should Do If Your Kid Loses a Permanent Tooth

Children may lose permanent teeth due to an accident or while playing a sport. Permanent teeth, when uprooted from the socket, can be painful and cause bleeding. You need to calm down in order to prevent your kid from panicking. Hold the tooth by the crown and not the root and try putting it back into the socket, if you are not able to do it, just put the tooth in some milk until you can reach the dentist. The dentist will fix the tooth back in its place. The tooth can be repaired, but only if you can get to the dentist in time before the tissues and nerves die.

If your kid ever gets in such dental emergencies, contact the dentists at College Plaza Dental and they will help you out.