It is our goal for your child to have a great experience while at PDGO and to leave with a healthy smile. We strive to have the highest level of care and attentiveness for our patients and their parents. We are honored that you chose PDGO to take care of your child’s dental needs. We hope to treat your child from their very first visit until they graduate from college. With a special team of dentists consisting of pediatric dentists, family dentists, and orthodontists, we are set up to be the complete dental home for your child.

Your darling three-month-old is crying and fussy—can she be teething already? Or, your happy baby boy has just celebrated his first birthday—with only one tooth in that beautiful, gummy smile. Is this normal? Probably! While baby teeth do typically erupt (come in) in the same order for all babies, and around the same time, there is still a lot of flexibility in the time it takes for a full, healthy smile to develop.

Baby teeth actually form before your baby is born, and those 20 teeth are there under the gums waiting to come out and shine. And even though there are no firm and fast dates for each of these primary teeth to erupt, it’s helpful to have a general overview of typical teething patterns so you know what to look forward to.

These little teeth create a charming baby smile, and, if your finger has been in the wrong place at the wrong time, a very sharp one as well! That is because these tiny incisors are made to bite into foods. You might notice this when you introduce solid foods, even if the majority of your child’s “chewing” is done with her back gums. These teeth are the earliest to arrive.

Baby teeth are extremely important, as our will tell you when you visit our office. They help your child eat and chew, develop face and jaw muscles, assist proper speech formation, and provide space for the adult teeth to come in properly. Now that your child’s smile is complete, keep providing him with the same care and attention you have been giving those little teeth since the arrival of the very first incisor.

It seems that so much of new parenthood is scheduling—when to feed her, when to put her to bed, how many hours between naps. But we soon find out that every baby is not on the same schedule, and the same is true for the arrival of their teeth. We should see your baby when that first tooth comes in, or by his or her first birthday. And if you ever have concerns at any time about your child’s teething schedule or teething delays, always feel free to give us a call.

Usually, the first baby teeth to fall out are the two front teeth on the bottom and the two front teeth on the top. The last to go are usually molars, which typically fall out between the ages of nine and 12, and they are replaced by permanent teeth around 13.

Your baby’s baby teeth are supposed to stay in place until they are pushed out by their permanent teeth. In fact, if your child loses a baby tooth too early, say from tooth decay or injury, surrounding teeth might drift into the empty space to fill the gap, and this isn’t a good thing. It can cause permanent teeth to come in crooked.