When are baby teeth replaced by permanent teeth?

Content:

1. Why is it necessary to replace baby teeth with permanent ones?
2. When do the first baby teeth fall out?
3. Which baby teeth fall out first?
4. Drop order
5. At what age do radical units appear?
6. Possible abnormalities in the child
7. Why do empty spaces remain unoccupied for a long time?

As the child grows, the baby teeth are replaced by permanent ones. This is a natural process, without which the full functioning of the dentofacial apparatus is impossible. But parents should treat it with the utmost responsibility, since very often violations in the sequence of loss of temporary units cause serious malocclusions that have to be treated in the future.

Tips for parents

During the period of teeth change, you should enrich your baby’s food with foods that are rich in calcium. To prevent inflammation in your mouth, make it a habit to rinse your mouth every time you eat or have a snack. As permanent teeth erupt, offer your baby soft or liquid foods. Avoid hot drinks.

If slight bleeding occurs when a baby tooth falls out, do not use alcohol tinctures. Apply a cotton ball to the wound and do not allow food for 2 hours. In order to promptly identify possible irregularities in the eruption of the permanent dentition, it is recommended to record the date of baby tooth loss.

Beautiful, straight and healthy teeth in adults are the result of proper care in childhood. Therefore, parents should teach their child proper oral hygiene from the first tooth.

Why is it necessary to replace baby teeth with permanent ones?

The chewing apparatus is improving and developing. In infancy, it is adapted exclusively for the intake of liquid food - breast milk. But closer to six months, you can already see baby teeth in children’s mouths. They allow the baby to get acquainted with the variety of solid adult foods.

There are few temporary teeth - ten pieces in each jaw. This is quite enough for the baby to eat well and talk normally. Closer to primary school age, the jaw grows. She is ready to cope with more serious chewing loads. Then children's incisors, canines and molars begin to wobble. They are replaced by a constant shift.

What is the process of changing teeth?

The process of changing teeth in the human body is laid down at the genetic level—twenty teeth are enough for small children to chew food well. After the age of five, a period of active growth begins, the jaw enlarges, gaps appear between the baby teeth, which are subsequently filled with permanent teeth.

Unlike teething, the process of changing baby teeth to permanent teeth does not cause discomfort to the child. The roots simply dissolve, after which the teeth fall out under the pressure of their “brothers” growing from below. The peculiarity of newly grown permanent teeth is that they do not have a fully formed root - this takes about three years.

Despite the fact that in most cases the process does not require outside intervention, parents should keep it under strict control. Once a week it is necessary to examine the child’s oral cavity - from about the age of five, the baby’s teeth seem to thin out, and subsequently begin to become loose. Having noticed this phenomenon, you can begin to gradually loosen your teeth so that they come out of the gums more easily.

Which baby teeth fall out first?

According to the standard pattern for replacing baby teeth, the lower incisors are the first to fall out. They are located in the center of the jaw. They can loosen one by one or almost simultaneously.

Following them, the opposite upper units begin to move. This is why you can often see children five or six years old with a funny toothless smile.

Drop order

The dropout pattern looks like this:

• 5-7 years - central incisors;
• 7-8 - lateral incisors;
• 9-11 - first molars of the upper jaw and second molars of the lower jaw;
• 9-12 - fangs;
• 10-13 - second molars of the upper dentition and first lower ones.

The diagram shows that the timing of changing units is quite arbitrary and quite long. This is why some children already have a permanent bite at the age of ten, while others still walk around at the age of 12 with actively loose baby teeth.

Do all teeth change in children?

There is an opinion that absolutely all baby teeth fall out and change in babies, but in fact this is not entirely true. The structure of a child's jaw differs from that of an adult's - while babies have only 20 teeth, an adult has 32. The first permanent teeth that appear in a child are molars, or sixes. They erupt after the age of four behind the second primary molars and simply stand in line with the primary teeth.

The so-called children's teeth that should fall out are the lateral incisors, two pairs of molars, a pair of premolars, and canines. In addition, the child will grow 4 additional teeth (second molars - sevens), that is, at the end of the process of loss there will be 28 of them. The lower teeth, as a rule, grow faster than the upper ones - an exception may be premolars. Eights - or wisdom teeth - grow already in adulthood, and in some people they remain in their infancy.

As in the case of baby teeth, the order and timing of the appearance of permanent teeth are individual and depend on a number of factors. But there is one important nuance here - too rapid loss of baby teeth can lead to permanent teeth growing crookedly, as a result of which the child’s bite will deteriorate.

Table. Approximate age of appearance of permanent teeth.

At what age do radical units appear?

We can talk about adult occlusion only a few years after the start of the change in time units. Typically, a stronger replacement will erupt several weeks or months (or, if pulled out prematurely, years) after the baby teeth fall out.

Central incisors grow from 6 to 8 years of age, lateral incisors from 7 to 9, premolars and canines from 9 to 12. Molars begin to grow at approximately six years of age. They immediately grow permanently, replacing the empty space.

Possible abnormalities in the child

Parents should know when to expect changes in their child's bite . Late change of baby teeth, like premature change, is undesirable. They speak of lateness when an eight-year-old child has not yet lost any of his incisors; they speak of early eruption if a five-year-old child has already lost many of his incisors and fallen out. It is important to find out the cause of the changes occurring and, if possible, eliminate it.

Factors due to which the bite changes earlier than standard periods:

• severe jaw injuries;
• congenital diseases leading to anomalies in the eruption of temporary and permanent units;
• advanced caries, due to which crowns and roots are destroyed faster than necessary.

As for a late shift, it is possible due to:

• rickets, calcium and vitamin D deficiency in the child’s body;
• hereditary characteristics of the dentofacial apparatus;
• some infectious pathologies.

Formation of permanent bite

The development of molars in children begins in the prenatal period and lasts until 18–20 years, when their structure fully corresponds to “adult” parameters. That is why their condition, as well as the exact timing of eruption, depend on many factors. This:

• genetic predisposition, which is associated with metabolic characteristics;
• insufficient consumption of mineral elements in food, and we are talking about the nutrition of not only the child, but also the woman during pregnancy;
• fluoride deficiency in water and food;
• compliance with hygiene rules;
• some infectious diseases suffered by the mother (during gestation);
• insufficient functional activity of the salivary glands, since saliva contains certain substances that additionally provide mineralization of enamel, etc.

How does teething occur?

With the exception of rare cases of congenital or acquired pathologies, the appearance of molars coincides with the time of loss of milk teeth. Usually, part of the permanent tooth is already visible in this place; sometimes its growth is delayed for a short time, which is also one of the normal options.

Contrary to popular belief, temporary teeth have roots, and they differ in shape and structure from permanent ones: they can be curved and “sit” quite deeply in the gums. But as the child grows up and the rudiments of the molars grow, the “temporary” roots gradually dissolve and on an x-ray they look “eaten away”, shortened.

In this case, the pulp, where the nerve endings and blood vessels are concentrated, is replaced by granular tissue, which also participates in the resorption of the “milky” root system. And if depulpation (nerve removal) was previously performed due to injury or advanced caries, this process occurs faster.

Why do empty spaces remain unoccupied for a long time?

It often happens that a child walks around with a toothless smile for a long time, but the situation still does not change. When examining his oral cavity, the parents do not see even a hint of an imminent full bite. This happens when:

• Retentions. Dental pathology in which a segment of gum tissue is shown very little or not at all. The violation may be complete or partial. In any case, if it occurs, you should consult your dentist. Sometimes the situation can only be corrected through surgery.
• Edentia. The banal absence of a permanent germ. So, for example, a temporary fang falls out, and there is nothing to replace it with. The anomaly can be confirmed using x-ray diagnostics - the images show that the rudiment is missing. Fortunately, congenital adentia is rarely diagnosed in young patients. If it is, only prosthetics will save you.
• Impacts. Difficulties with eruption with this diagnosis are explained by the fact that the crowns of the “neighbors” are too close to each other and do not leave room for the crown, which should be between them. Deviations can also be detected using x-rays.

If there are any problems with the bite, parents should show the baby to the doctor. Moreover, children should have annual checkups at the dentist's office. This simple measure serves as an excellent prevention of serious complications and reduces the likelihood of an unattractive smile in adulthood.