What Age Do You Normally Lose Your Baby Teeth By?
Every child is different and every child loses their last baby teeth at a different age. Some kids don’t lose their last baby teeth until they are in their early to middle teens and some kids lose them all before they leave elementary. It all depends on the genetics of your teeth and when your permanent teeth start pushing on your baby teeth. But there is an average time frame that you can expect your children to lose their teeth by that you can use as a frame of reference to make sure your child’s teeth are as healthy as they can be.
First Teeth
Baby teeth usually fall out in the same order that they came in. So the front teeth are usually first with the ones near it following soon after. Some kids lose their first tooth as early as 4 or as late as 7 but most kids lose their first tooth at age 5 or 6. If your child is at either end of this scale you may consider taking them to a dentist to make sure that their teeth and gums are healthy as they should be. Children whose teeth come in really early when they are a baby tend to also lose their first tooth at a younger age as well. You can usually know if there is an underlying issue if the tooth that falls out is not replaced with a permanent tooth within 3 months. In this case, you should contact your dentist to examine the missing tooth.
Losing Teeth
By the time a child is 12, most have lost all of their baby teeth. If they haven’t lost all of their teeth at this point there isn’t necessarily a problem, but it never hurts to have it looked at by a dentist if they get closer to 14 or 15 years old as it could be an underlying problem. As mentioned early, it still can be completely healthy to still have baby teeth at this point, it just depends on the specific situation. Girls teeth will usually erupt earlier than boys, and because of this, they will usually fall out faster as well.
The main problems that can occur when baby teeth fall out too late or too early are usually orthodontic related. If the permanent teeth take too long to grow in after the baby tooth falls out it can cause the permanent tooth to not grow in the correct spot and cause crowding. If the baby teeth fall out too late it can cause the permanent teeth to grow in crooked because they were stuck above the baby tooth trying to grow in for too long. This is why it is suggested to take your child to a dentist or orthodontist if either of these issues occurs. But most of the time the variance is normal and your child’s smile and teeth will still be intact!
