When you have a bundle of joy in your arms, you are filled with some of the cutest and most fragile things like baby clothes, rattles, and milk teeth. Yes, milk teeth seem like very delicate structures and it’s easy for any new parent to be intimidated by these things. But for as long as you have an arsenal of information about baby teeth — when they come in, when they fall of and what happens in between and after — then there’s really nothing to be worried about.
Overview of Milk Teeth
Milk teeth or deciduous teeth come in when a child is aged six months and these teeth will start to fall off when the child reaches five to six years, or even four years. By the time a child hits 12 years old, all of the permanent teeth would have exfoliated already.
There are a total of 20 baby teeth in all with 10 baby teeth found in each jaw. The incisors are found on the front of each jaw. These incisors are next to the canines or eyeteeth. Found at the very back of the mouth are the molars with two molars found on each side and four molars in each set of teeth.
How soon should baby teeth come in?
Before the baby is delivered, your child’s baby teeth have already developed deep within the gums. However, it isn’t until the child is six months old until the deciduous teeth start to come in. By the time your child is two or two and a half years old, all of your child’s milk teeth should all be out already. However, don’t worry so much if your baby’s first teeth start to come in earlier or later than the median six months.
How do your baby’s teeth fall out?
The dental roots of your baby slowly dissolve as preparation for the permanent teeth to come in. For this reason, your child could lose a tooth without any kind of pain or even without any kind of sign. While yanking is never a good thing to do since the dental roots will not have dissolved properly then, you can encourage your child to wiggle a loose tooth in order to accelerate the dissolution of the dental root. You can then use a piece of string in order to pull the loose tooth in order to pull it out.
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