Monday, June 6, 2011

When do children lose their baby teeth?

This question came up recently because I've come across a family with an eight year old who just lost her first tooth. Her younger sister is six, and has not lost a tooth yet, either. I remember having a neighbor who was the same way, and I started wondering if my children were weird...or were these other kids? My son lost his first tooth just after his 5th birthday. My daughter's two front teeth were coming in by age six (she lost them both in a fall early on). My son is only 10 and already has his 12 year molars. Of course his baby teeth came in beginning at three months, so he is odd...but what is normal?

Kids begin losing their baby teeth between five and seven years old. By around ages 12-13, all baby teeth should be replaced by permanent adult teeth. The process begins later for some children, and there seems to be some correlation between kids who get their baby teeth early and when they start falling out.

For more information on the care and keeping of children's teeth, here is an article I wrote about our journey with cavity prevention in children.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My daughter who is 4 years and 4 months lost her bottom teeth a month ago and the new ones are already growing. This seems like it's too soon. Does anyone know if this is normal?

Evie said...

It's early, but I would be more concerned if they fell out but no teeth were appearing. At least you know the teeth fell out because the ones below were coming in and not because of decay.