My six year old just handed me her 7th tooth that fell out. She has 2 bottom ones that have grown back in, but FIVE empty spaces in her mouth. She has been guilty of wiggling them in the past, and I wonder if she is still doing it. I used to catch her wiggling them, but I don't see her do it now. I don't think she is, but yeesh, isn't 7 a lot of teeth to loose already? This tooth barely bled too. Does that mean it was ready to come out? I thought kids lost teeth by biting into apples and finally pulling them after they were hanging by a gory thread. ;o)
Is that too many missing too soon?
How many teeth have your kids lost
Thank you for all of the replies. They were VERY helpful. It looks like there are plenty of kids her age who have lost the same amount of teeth. Thanks a lot!
my child is 5 years old and she lost 4 teeth, I look at every tooth to see if there are cavities, and there are not, so I'am not concernd, also there is a german saying the sooner the teeth fall out, the sooner the kids are out of the house lol
Speaking as a Dental Assistant as well as a Mom ... all of these stories are completely 100% normal. The "baby" teeth are essentially training wheels as well as space savers for the "adult" teeth. None of the primary teeth will wiggle or come out until it's time for the permanent tooth to begin coming in to replace them. I've seen cases where the child wouldn't wiggle the baby teeth (my son included) and the permanent tooth came in behind the baby tooth. When this happens, the child will have a Dentist assisted extraction in his / her future.
The main things you need to be concerned about are:
1) Keep the teeth clean. Mom and Dad need to help brush and floss all of the teeth until the child is at least 8 or 9 years old.
2) Kids don't see the need to brush more than once a day. They NEED to brush a minimum of 2 times a day with the most important time being right before bed time.
3) Soda (or pop), Sunkist, Lemonade, Kool-Aide, fruit juices, milk are the worst possible bedtime drinks. If he / she is really thirsty, water is the best answer.
4) Soda (or pop) is the leading cause of tooth decay. Sadly it's quickly followed by "baby bottle" tooth decay. Here's a link with a few pictures of bottle rot. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=baby+bottle+rot+...
Do yourselves a favor. There is an experiment that we had to do in Dental Assisting school that I think *everyone* should do.
1) Get 3 glasses of equal size and 3 chicken leg bones (need to be raw bones) of similar size.
2) Put 1 bone in each glass.
3) Label the first glass "Soda" or "Pop" and fill that glass half way up the bone with your choice of soda / pop.
4) Label the second glass "Vinegar" and fill it half way with your choice of vinegar (pickle juice will work in a similar way).
5) Label the last glass "water" and fill it half way up the bone.
6) Let the glasses sit for 24 hours untouched. After your 24 hrs is up, take the bones our of the glasses and see what each liquid has done to them.
7) Imagine those bones as teeth.
My 7 year old lost 3 teeth in one weekend. He happened to have a dentist appointment the next week and the Dr. said " You might as well try and get out that other little one" He encouraged him to play with them if they felt a little loose. So I think all is well. They won't come out till they are ready and every kid looses them at a different pace. :)
My son is almost 9 and he's lost 5 so far.....
I don't think there is a rule to how many teeth to lose by a certain age is normal....
Some lose teeth sooner, some later....
My oldest had teeth really late and I was concerned too at first, but the pediatrician and our dentist assured me that it's ok.....
Don't worry about it, just try to keep her from wiggling it....
If she's got too many teeth missing for a longer period of time (until the big girl teeth have actually pushed through), her teeth could start to grow crooked.....at least that's what I was told by my dentist.....
All kids teeth grow in and different rates and all kids teeth come in at different times...I totally wouldn't sweat it. When's her yearly check-up? Just ask the dentist next time you go, if your still worried then.
My son lost 6 teeth when he was 5...he is now 6 and still has 4 empty holes and the 2 that have grown in, just started and are only half way in.
My son took a line dive to the mouth (first day of T-Ball) and it loosened the top 2 and bottom 2 front teeth. It killed one of the top teeth and myself and the dentist decided to just go ahead and pull the other 3 because even though they weren't dead, they were not likely to tighten back up. Then when the bottom teeth started growing in they came in crooked and squished so he needed to pull the 2 teeth on either side to make room for the big teeth! It was a lot for my lil guy to deal with...but he still loves baseball! :) My rambling point being, baby teeth have their own schedule, don't fret...they are supposed to come out...eventually!
Oh, yeah...I was a "leave 'em til they were hanging by a gory thread" type of girl and I had completely repressed the utter and total grossness of dealing with loose teeth til it happened to my oldest...I hated it, was scared of it and always asked my big sis to pull out my teeth because I was too chicken to do it myself!! Be glad your daughter doesn't seem to have an issue with dealing with them, lucky girl!
my 6 year old is desperate to loose a tooth :) LOL but the dentist said because she got teeth late she will loose them late too. They are barely the tiniest bit wiggly (mostly with dental tools) and dentist said she will probably still have them at next check up in september.... but once they loose one they rapidly fall out. My son is 11 and still has several baby teeth to lose. Unless she injured herself and knocked them loose then wiggled- i don't think she could loosen them to falling out on her own. If so- my daughter would have been toothless at 4- she has been wanting to lose a tooth ever since her brother 1st did (she was about 2 or 3).
If you are super concerned call your dentist (or any dentist and just ask).
Hope this helps :)
They usually lose 8 pretty close together... the 4 top and the 4 bottom... and then later on start losing the others (canines, baby molars, etc.)
my son is 6.5 and still has not lost a tooth....... he so wants a wiggly tooth!
Sounds entirely within the range of normal. My just-turned-seven-year-old has lost 8 teeth, always in matching pairs less than a week apart, sometimes just a couple hours apart.
She's also a wiggler, always excited to get the tooth out, and wiggles until it bleeds, then wiggles some more. Not a worry, though - the tooth won't wiggle until the root dissolves, the root dissolves as the adult tooth pushes out. She wiggles constantly as soon as a tooth is loose. She unintentionally yanked one out as she was wiggling and we drove across a set of train tracks (bump-bump, tooth out).
My only concern is as the second incisors (on top, bugs bunny smile for now) are starting to come in, and the top teeth are too big (mine were too big, too, had to have two top teeth removed AND have 5 years of braces to fit all my top teeth inSIDE my mouth), and crowding and coming in crooked. Oh well, orthodontics fund has been started. We're hoping that since she's only 7, and going through a growth spurt to end all growth spurts, her upper jaw will grow soon, too, and better accomodate her large top incisors (strangely, bottom incisors are small-normal really- like mine. gotta love genetics).
Enjoy the gappy smile while it lasts - take lots of pics - and if you're really concerned, get her to a pediatric dentist to set your mind at ease. Also can't hurt to see if they're coming in straight, and how soon. If orthodontia looms, start saving the pennies NOW.
My 6 year old twins have lost 8 and 9 teeth. The 9th was a baby molar. I freaked about that one and called the dentist. He just said the adult tooth underneath needed room to grow and pushed out the baby, but he will have a gap for a while. My kids' teeth didn't come in particularly early, but they've been losing them since they were 4.
My daughter lost all 4 top and all 4 bottom in when she was aobut 4 1/2. He Easter pictures the Spring before she started Kindergarten we had pictures made and it was funny to see how gummy she was. It entirley depends on when the teeth come in. My daughter got her first tooth at 3 months. Her daughter got her first tooth at 4 months. She has all 8 gone right now and she's 6 1/2 years old.
Kids often lose teeth the same way they grow them in. My kids grew their teeth usually two or four at a time and they lost them the same way.
I know you've recieved lots of responses for this already, but wanted to tell you about my oldest daughter. She lost her first two teeth at the age of four. By the age of nine she had all her permenant teeth in. So you never know. She was always two years ahead of the age molars....6 year molars she had at 4 and so on. So don't worry. Her teeth will come and go. Sometimes by themselves and sometimes with help. Just make sure the tooth fairy's bank is stocked. Good luck and God Bless.
Kids loose teeth at different times. Wiggling them will not make them fall out before they're ready to fall out. My grandchildren all wiggle their teeth once they're just a little bit loose and it still takes weeks sometimes for them to come out.
But,if you're concerned you should ask the dentist. If she hasn't seen the dentist yet, I urge you to make an appointment. My grandson had several cavities that we didn't know about. One tooth had to be capped. In order to have healthy adult teeth we must keep the baby teeth healthy.
You know what's funny? When my kid was 6 he hadn't lost ANY teeth! He lost his first at 7, and has lost them very very slowly.
My son turned six in December. He lost his first teeth at age 4. He has all of his permanent front teeth, except for 2 that are coming in now. He started getting his six-year old molars at age 4. He also got in teeth early. he had 6 teeth by six months of age and a mouth full of teeth by age 1.
Just remind her that now that she is getting all those big teeth she has to take extra good care of them because she won't be getting any more :)!
There's nothing wrong with her teeth coming out. If they are loose, then they are ready. There is no limit on how many are normal, they are all meant to come out, there isn't a specific timetable.
Sorry, I know I'm late. But looks like you got a lot of great responses. Just to let you know... my daughter is 7.5 yrs and lost her first of TEN teeth when she was only 4. I thought 4 years old was waaay to young but the dentist said it's normal -- anytime between 4-7 years old!
I know kids can lose teeth early or late, but its worth it to get it checked out and have dentist do X-rays.
My daughter is 7, she had 5-6 teeth by 2 months, and started loosing them at age 4.
It was all no big deal till we started to notice that her molars were not white and were soft and she was getting tons of cavities in them.
Now at age 7, we r having to go to an orthodontist because of over crowding and premature eruption. She has lost all but 4 of her molars and we r having to have those pulled to make room for the adult molars that r trying to come threw early and don't even have roots. But because of the pushing her gums are developing abcesses.
They will have to pull all 4 molars left and then go to orthodontist and have 2 adult molars and her adult k9 pulled to make room for the last of adult teeth that have been trying to come in for a year sideways and on top of each other. Because of the infection from the adults coming in to early and pushing the baby teeth out to soon it is eating her jaw. So you can see where sections of her jaw are starting to disappear.
And I would have never known if I hadn't seen the abcess. Early tooth loss can be normal, or could not be.
We can already see her wisdom teeth up high in X-ray, and we are looking at those coming threw at age 10... 11 if we r lucky.
Her mouth can not fit all these adult teeth. We can't even wait till they come in to pull them. We need to pull what's already come threw to make room.
It would be wise to just get it checked with your dentist and see what it looks like for the adult teeth coming in.
My daughter just turned 6 and now has 8 teeth missing. One of her dearest friends is 19-months older than her and hasn't lost a single tooth. The only adult teeth that have grown in for my daughter are the bottom two. Same as your daughter. She gets comments constantly. She manages fine w/out all those teeth (gnashes food w/ the back teeth). One of the top teeth just started peeking through. According to her pediatric dentist - the developing teeth all look fine and look like they're coming through. No worries!
