Adult teeth coming in behind baby teeth

[Anonymous]

I just noticed that DD (6.5) had her first adult tooth coming in. Her front two bottom teeth have been loose for a few weeks, but are no where near ready to come out. Should I be concerned at all about the adult tooth coming in? I assume it will just keep coming in and eventually, once the baby tooth falls out, will move into place. We leave for a 2 week vacation tomorrow and I can't get DD to the dentist before then. We already have appointments for the end of August, so hopefully waiting until then won't cause any issues.

[Anonymous]

I had to have two baby teeth pulled at the dentist's office because of this. It wasn't any hurry.

Start saving for braces of you haven't already!

[Anonymous]

My kids' dentist doesn't recommend pulling any loose teeth out. DD lost two teeth during vacation - they were so loose by then that they practically fell out. Minimal bleeding, no pain.

[Anonymous]

My kid had this too --- it's called "shark teeth" and the dentist said not to worry. We let it go and as advised, the baby teeth eventually fell out and the adult teeth moved forward. I think the open space and the natural pressure of the tongue pushing forward cause the adult teeth to move forward.

It's a bit shocking, but don't worry about it.

[Anonymous]

My ds is the king of shark teeth. The problem with shark teeth is that it's the adult tooth coming up under the baby tooth that dissolves the root of the baby tooth. If the adult tooth isn't coming up in such a way as to dissolve the root, there's nothing that will make the baby tooth come out. So I think there's no general rule -- it's not an emergency, you can wait until after your vacation, but you do need to talk to your dentist about what the odds are of the baby tooth coming out on its own.

My ds ended up having seven baby teeth pulled (his first two in kindergarten, his third one during oral surgery he had to have a year ago, and his last four just a couple of months ago, at age 12) because there was no way they were coming out on their own. Four of them had no roots, they were just stuck in his gums and weren't coming out on their own. Three of them still had roots and definitely weren't coming out on their own because the adult teeth didn't dissolve the roots.

If I had to do it over again I would have been more proactive on a) getting a panoramic x-ray done sooner to see what was going on with the alignment of the adult teeth under the gums and b) getting the baby teeth out sooner to set up a clear path for the adult teeth to come in. With his last upper canine, the adult tooth came in pretty significantly far back because the baby tooth was in the way. Our dentist had told us to wait, it would come out on its own -- our orthodontist told us to get it out. Wish we'd done it sooner because it's just going to make his time in braces that much longer.

I also wish we'd gotten the panoramic sooner (our old dentist and orthodontist didn't do them, no idea why) because one of his adult teeth grew sideways under his other teeth to the extent he had to have it removed as there was no way to save it. He just has a wacky bunch of teeth and we would have been much better off if we'd seen those issues coming so we could have potentially taken less drastic action. The oral surgery really, really sucked.

[Anonymous]

It's really common. Both my kids had shark teeth for a while and then the baby teeth fell out. Top and bottom middle teeth.

[Anonymous]

My kid had this for a while. Her ped dentist called them 'shark teeth'. Said it was normal and to wait it out. Eventually they fell out. Hers were the bottom two teeth. Looked pretty freaky for a while!