6 year old - permanent tooth coming in behind baby tooth

[Anonymous]

My son has a permanent lower tooth emerging - but his front baby tooth is still there and seems to be actually shifting to the side - has anyone seen this before? Should we go to the dentist now? Every day the space is widening but the tooth does not look ready to fall out. And the new tooth is way behind the row of teeth......should I be concerened?

[Anonymous]

this happened to my son and the dentist was not concerned-- she said it would push the baby tooth out and move into place and it did. The big tooth looked aS IF IT Would be way back but it moved once the baby tooth was out.

[Anonymous]

completly normal. The baby tooth will fall out soon.

[Anonymous]

I think extractions are a last resort. If there's a lot of discomfort and the baby tooth isn't loose at all, you may want to ask your dentist to have a look (I did). He told me these situations normally resolve themselves.

[Anonymous]

Bumping an old thread--just discovered this same situation ("shark teeth"!) in my 6-year-old. Any other experiences that people can report? From my reading it looks like dentists are less worried about this in the lower front teeth (where my child has them) than in other places.

[Anonymous]

I would not be overly concerned but I would call the dentist and get a professional opinion.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my 4-year-old. His baby tooth did eventually fall out, though it took MUCH longer (and a bit of wrestling with another boy) to get out than my older son. As long as the baby tooth stays loose, I don't think you have much to worry about. My niece had the opposite happen, though, where the baby teeth got loose, then re-strengthened and stayed. Those teeth had to be extracted.

[Anonymous]

My 6 yo had her bottom two teeth extracted for this reason (permanent teeth coming up behind them). Our dentist said if the permanent teeth were more than 1/2 way out and the baby teeth weren't loose, she would pull them. The baby teeth still had full roots on them when she pulled them out! Dentist said what is supposed to happen is the permanent tooth pushes up underneath the baby tooth and helps dissolve the root/loosen the tooth. The extraction wasn't pleasant but my little one survived and felt very brave afterwards. The worst part was the novacaine shot. Her other baby teeth have fallen out on their own just fine.

[Anonymous]

my six year old boy has a loose tooth, it hasn't fallen out yet, but there's another tooth behind the loosed one should i be concerned

[Anonymous]

My 6 yo had her bottom two teeth extracted for this reason (permanent teeth coming up behind them). Our dentist said if the permanent teeth were more than 1/2 way out and the baby teeth weren't loose, she would pull them. The baby teeth still had full roots on them when she pulled them out! Dentist said what is supposed to happen is the permanent tooth pushes up underneath the baby tooth and helps dissolve the root/loosen the tooth. The extraction wasn't pleasant but my little one survived and felt very brave afterwards. The worst part was the novacaine shot. Her other baby teeth have fallen out on their own just fine.

Exactly the same thing happened with my DS when he was 6! His 2 bottom baby teeth were not loose at all, and the permanent teeth came in directly behind them. Our dentist said the same thing as PPs. If the permanent tooth does not begin to dissolve the roots of the baby tooth, the baby tooth will stay in because it's still alive. And after a couple of months, the permanent teeth will start to "set" in the jaw where they are (ie, behind the baby teeth) and it will be more difficult to move them forward later. So we had both baby teeth extracted. They had complete roots and would not have come out any time soon without the extraction. The extraction was pretty unpleasant for my son, again with the novacaine being the worst part, but once the baby teeth were out, the permanent teeth moved forward into the right spot very quickly. Really it was pretty amazing to see them moving a little each day. I wonder if this is more common with the bottom front teeth? My son's other teeth all came in normally (he's almost 9).

So if the baby tooth is loosening, the root is probably dissolving and it should come out on its own eventually. It's a cause for concern when the baby tooth does not get loose at all and the permanent tooth comes all the way in without dislodging the baby tooth. Even then, it's a very quick fix and not a major problem - once the baby teeth are extracted, there shouldn't be any problem with the permanent teeth shifting forward to the right spot.

[Anonymous]

happened to my DD as well, totally normal

[Anonymous]

I'm 32 now, so this was a while ago, but I never lost my baby teeth on my own. They were all extracted, some two or three at a time. I have no idea if the dentist was overly aggressive about removing them. He seemed concerned about the orientation of the permanent teeth. But I was too little to ask intelligent questions.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids have this issue. At first the dentist was pulling my son's baby teeth to make way for the permanent, but our orthodontist recommended we just let nature take its course, and the baby teeth have eventually fallen out on their own. Having teeth pulled can be very traumatic, so I'm much happier with letting them fall out in their own, and so are my kids.

[Anonymous]

I remember at one point in my childhood I had overlapping eye teeth. Wasn't pretty but the situation resolved itself.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I was wondering the same and this all helped! My 4 yr old son is getting his first adult tooth, but the baby tooth is there still (it's loose, but not ready). The adult tooth looks like it's in the wrong place, so I was worried. Thanks!