What Do Baby Teeth Look Like Under Gums

Dental Health and Your Kid'southward Teeth

Medically Reviewed by Evan Frisbee, DMD on October 31, 2021

Baby Teeth

A child'due south oral cavity has twenty initial teeth, as well called primary teeth, baby teeth, or deciduous teeth:

Four second molars
4 first molars
Four cuspids (also called canine teeth or eyeteeth)
Four lateral incisors
4 central incisors

For each fix of four teeth, two teeth are in the upper arch (one on each side of the mouth) and two are in the lower arch (one on each side of the mouth).

Permanent Teeth

The adult mouth has 32 permanent teeth:

Four third molars (also called wisdom teeth)
Iv second molars (likewise chosen 12-yr molars)
Four first molars (too chosen vi-year molars)
Four second bicuspids (also called second premolars)
4 commencement bicuspids (likewise called kickoff premolars)
Iv cuspids (also chosen canine teeth or eyeteeth)
Four lateral incisors
Four central incisors

Teeth Functions

Your teeth are used for:

Biting and tearing. The central incisors and lateral incisors are generally used for bitter and cutting, and canine teeth are primarily used for fierce food.

Grinding and crushing. The premolars, molars, and wisdom teeth are by and large used for chewing and grinding food.

How Teeth Are Structured

Each tooth has three main parts: crown, neck, and root.

The crown is the visible part of the tooth. A protective layer called enamel covers the crown.
The neck is the surface area of the molar between the crown and the root.
The root is the portion of the tooth that extends through the gum and into the bone of the jaw.

The following chart shows when your child's primary teeth (also called baby teeth or deciduous teeth) should erupt and shed. Eruption times vary from kid to child.

Every bit seen from the nautical chart, the first teeth begin to pause through the gums at most 6 months of age. Usually, the showtime two teeth to erupt are the ii bottom central incisors (the ii lesser front teeth). Next, the superlative iv front end teeth emerge. After that, other teeth slowly brainstorm to fill in, usually in pairs -- one each side of the upper or lower jaw -- until all 20 teeth (10 in the upper jaw and ten in the lower jaw) have come in by the time the child is 2 ½ to 3 years old. The complete fix of primary teeth is in the mouth from the historic period of two ½ to 3 years of age to 6 to 7 years of historic period.

Primary Teeth Development Chart
Upper Teeth	When molar emerges	When tooth falls out
Central incisor	8 to 12 months	half dozen to 7 years
Lateral incisor	nine to thirteen months	7 to 8 years
Canine (cuspid)	16 to 22 months	ten to 12 years
First molar	13 to 19 months	nine to xi years
Second molar	25 to 33 months	ten to 12 years

Lower Teeth
Second molar	23 to 31 months	10 to 12 years
First tooth	14 to 18 months	9 to 11 years
Canine (cuspid)	17 to 23 months	9 to 12 years
Lateral incisor	ten to 16 months	vii to 8 years
Fundamental incisor	6 to 10 months	6 to 7 years

An overview of children's teeth

Other principal tooth eruption facts:

A general rule of thumb is that for every 6 months of life, approximately 4 teeth will erupt.
Girls generally precede boys in tooth eruption.
Lower teeth usually erupt before upper teeth.
Teeth in both jaws ordinarily erupt in pairs -- one on the correct and one on the left.
Primary teeth are smaller in size and whiter in color than the permanent teeth that volition follow.
By the time a child is 2 to 3 years of age, all primary teeth should have erupted.

Shortly afterward age 4, the jaw and facial bones of the child brainstorm to grow, creating spaces between the chief teeth. This is a perfectly natural growth process that provides the necessary infinite for the larger permanent teeth to emerge. Betwixt the ages of six and 12, a mixture of both master teeth and permanent teeth reside in the rima oris.

Why Is It Important to Care for Baby Teeth?

While it'southward true that baby teeth are only in the mouth a short period of time, they play a vital role. Infant teeth:

Reserve space for their permanent counterparts
Requite the face its normal appearance.
Assistance in the development of clear spoken language.
Aid attain good nutrition (missing or rust-covered teeth make information technology difficult to chew, causing children to reject foods)
Help give a good for you start to the permanent teeth (decay and infection in infant teeth can crusade harm to the permanent teeth developing beneath them)

To understand the problems that decaying baby teeth can cause in permanent teeth, see Oral Health Problems in Children.

Children should usually exist seen by a dentist by the age of 1 or inside 6 months after their get-go tooth comes in.

What Happens at the First Dental Visit?

The starting time dental visit is usually brusque and involves very little handling. This visit gives your child a risk to meet the dentist in a nonthreatening and friendly way. Some dentists may ask the parent to sit in the dental chair and hold their child during the exam. Or you lot might wait in the reception area during part of the visit and then that your dentist can build a relationship with your child.

During the test, your dentist will check all of your kid'due south teeth for decay, examine their bite, and look for any potential problems with the gums, jaw, and oral tissues. If necessary, the dentist or hygienist will clean teeth and assess the need for fluoride. They will also educate parents well-nigh oral health care basics for children, discuss dental developmental issues, and answer any questions.

Topics your dentist may discuss with y'all might include:

Expert oral hygiene practices for your kid'south teeth and gums and crenel prevention
Fluoride needs
Oral habits (thumb sucking, tongue thrusting, lip sucking)
Developmental milestones
Teething
Proper nutrition
Schedule of dental checkups. Many dentists like to see children every 6 months to build up the kid's comfort and confidence level in visiting the dentist, to monitor the development of the teeth, and promptly treat any developing bug.

Yous will be asked to complete medical and health data forms concerning the kid during the first visit. Come prepared with the necessary information.

What's the Difference Between a Pediatric Dentist and a Regular Dentist?

A pediatric dentist has at least ii more than years of training beyond dental school. The training focuses on management and treatment of a kid'due south developing teeth, child behavior, concrete growth and development, and the special needs of children's dentistry. Although either type of dentist tin handle your kid'south oral health care needs, a pediatric dentist, their staff, and even the role décor are all geared to intendance for children and to put them at ease. If your child has special needs, think near getting care from a pediatric dentist. Ask your dentist or your child's physician what they recommend.

When Should Children Get Their First Dental X-Ray?

There are no rules for when to start dental 10-rays. Some children who may exist at college risk for dental problems (for example, those prone to baby bottle tooth decay or those with crack lip/palate) should have Ten-rays taken earlier than others. Normally, almost children will have had X-rays taken by the age of 5 or 6. Equally children brainstorm to get their adult teeth effectually the age of 6, X-rays play an important office in helping your dentist to run across if all of the adult teeth are growing in the jaw, to look for seize with teeth issues, and to find out if teeth are make clean and healthy.

Nutrition and Your Child'south Teeth

What your kid eats affects their teeth. Also many carbohydrates, sugar (for instance, from cake, cookies, candies, milk, and other sugary foods and beverages), and starches (such as pretzels and potato chips) tin can cause tooth decay. How long carbohydrates remain on the teeth is the primary culprit backside tooth decay.

The all-time thing yous tin can do every bit a parent is to teach your child to make healthy food choices. Here are some tips:

Try fruits and vegetables. Offering fruits and vegetables as a snack instead of carbohydrates. Fruits and vegetables with a high volume of water, such as pears, melons, celery, and cucumbers, are best. Limit banana and raisin consumption, as these take concentrated saccharide, or if y'all serve these fruits, try to brush your child's teeth right away after they are eaten.
Cull cheese. Serve cheese with dejeuner or as a snack, specially cheddar, Monterey Jack, Swiss, and other aged cheeses, which help to trigger the menses of saliva. Saliva helps wash food particles away from teeth.
Avoid sticky, chewy foods. Raisins, dried figs, granola confined, oatmeal or peanut butter cookies, jelly beans, caramel, love, molasses, and syrup stick to teeth, making it difficult for saliva to launder the sugar away. If your child consumes these types of products, accept them castor their teeth right later eating.
Serve sugary treats with meals, not as snacks. If you program to give your kid any sweets, give them as desserts only after the meal. There'due south ordinarily more than saliva in the mouth around mealtime, making it easier to launder food away from teeth. The mealtime beverage also helps wash abroad food particles on teeth.
Get your children in the habit of eating as few snacks equally possible. How frequently your child snacks is far more than of import than the how much they eat. Time between meals allows saliva to wash away food particles that leaner would otherwise feast on. Frequent snacking, without brushing correct after, provides constant fuel to feed bacteria, which leads to plaque buildup and tooth decay. Try to limit snacks as much as possible and to one or 2 a day.
Avoid sugary foods that linger on the teeth. Lollipops, hard candies, cough drops, and mints all contribute to tooth disuse considering they continuously coat the teeth with sugar.
Buy foods that are carbohydrate-free or unsweetened.
Never put your infant to bed with a bottle of milk, formula, juice, or soda.
Offer your kid apparently water instead of juice or soda. Juices, sodas, and fifty-fifty milk incorporate sugar. Water does non impairment the teeth and aids in washing away any food particles that may be clinging to teeth.
Include good sources of calcium in your kid's diet to build stiff teeth. Good sources include milk, broccoli, and yogurt.

Other Tips for Your Child'due south Teeth

If your child chews gum, opt for xylitol-sweetened or sugar-free gum. Xylitol tin can reduce the amount of leaner in the mouth, and the chewing action helps boost the flow of saliva.
Brush with fluoride toothpastes. The all-time way to prevent tooth decay is to employ a toothpaste with fluoride every day. Current recommendations are to use fluoride toothpaste for all ages, simply use a very modest corporeality for younger children. The fluoride seeps inside the molar to reverse early decay. Brush your child's teeth at least twice a twenty-four hours and after each meal or snack if possible. If brushing between meals is not possible, at least rinse the oral fissure with h2o several times.
Floss your child's teeth daily. Do it at least once a twenty-four hours to help remove particles between teeth and beneath the glue line.
Rinse with fluoride mouthwash. A fluoride mouthwash can help prevent molar decay. Utilise only afterwards six years one-time.
Castor your child'southward teeth afterward giving their medicine. Medicines such as cough syrups have sugar that bacteria in the mouth use to make acids. These acids can eat abroad at the enamel.

Easing Your Child'south Fearfulness of the Dentist

Parents and dentists each play an important role in making a kid's showtime dental engagement a positive feel. Whatsoever anxiety that parents show will be picked upwards by the kid. And an unfriendly dentist can crusade unnecessary fright in the kid.

Parents' Role in the Dental Visit

To assistance the dental visit become more than smoothly:

Tell your kid almost the visits, but limit the details. Answer any questions with simple, to-the-point answers. Let the dentist answer more circuitous or detailed questions. Dentists are trained to describe things to children in a nonthreatening way and in piece of cake-to-understand language.
Avoid the utilize of words like "hurt," "shot," or "painful."
Don't tell your child about an unpleasant dental experience that you lot've had.
Stress to your kid how important it is to maintain healthy teeth and gums and that the dentist is a friendly physician whose task it is to aid do this.
Don't promise a reward for going to the dentist.

Proceed in heed that it is perfectly normal for children to exist fearful. Some are afraid of being separated from their parents; others are afraid of the unknown; others are afraid of being injured. A dentist who treats children volition know how to cope with your child'south fears and anxiety and put them at ease.

Dentist's Role

Children may express fear in a number of means. Some may cry; others may throw temper tantrums. Dentists often will use techniques to ease children's fears, including:

The dentist should talk in a friendly vocalism that could get firmer if necessary.
Unproblematic words should be used to describe the procedure. Sometimes, dentists will demonstrate the procedure on a doll or another person before doing it on the child.
Many times, dentists will tell stories or engage the child in chat as a means of cartoon attention away from the procedure.
Dentists often will apply body language, such as a simple smile or pout, to reinforce positive behavior and discourage negative beliefs. Praise and compliments should be given to reinforce good behavior.
The dentist may use sedation to help the child relax and be more comfy, if necessary. The ii most common types of sedation that might be used in children are nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") or an oral sedative (such as Valium).

If your dentist does not take steps to ease your child'south fears, consider finding some other dentist. Information technology is important that your child has a positive feel at the dentist during their early years and so that they exercise not develop an ongoing fearfulness of oral health intendance providers.

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Source: https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/dental-health-your-childs-teeth