Daughter is 8. She had an orthodontist consult less than a year ago, and he had her x-rays and did a visual exam and declared that she would probably need braces at some point, but nothing worth intervention now. Her dentist, also looking at her x-rays, has said that she has a full set of adult teeth and things look pretty good and for god’s sake, child, when he says floss he means every day!
Since then, she’s lost her left lateral incisor (G) and the adult one hasn’t come in. She’s lost at least one other since then which has grown in. Tonight she lost the match to the one that hasn’t grown in (D).
So obviously, the Adult #10 tooth is delayed, if not outright on strike. Is this something I should be making an extra dentist visit for, or can it wait until December or so when she’s next due for a cleaning?
Dentist here. It can wait until December. Kids get teeth at different times. I’ve had 4 year olds with all eight perm. incisors in and ten year olds with none. The previous radiographs showed the teeth were present and not impacted(which is rare for an incisor) and since the two laterals are both at about the same stage of eruption I think she is fine.
IIRC the eruption charts that are most widely used are based on a study of about 30 kids of Northern European extraction done in the 1930’s. Lots more variation in real world situations.
I had several baby teeth pulled at 11 as part of orthodontic work.
My incisors did not come in until I was about 12. There was at least a year when I could hold a pencil across the two gaps. The one thing I don’t know is when the baby teeth would have fallen out naturally.
Oooh, this almost makes me want to start a poll to see how old people were when they lost their last baby tooth to see if anyone was older than me: my last one broke and had to be pulled when I was 19. But, unlike **WhyNot’**s daughter, we’d known since I was 5 that there wasn’t going to be an adult tooth to replace it.
Completely off topic, but I still do a double take every time you mention how old she is! I still remember the picture of her wearing daddy’s wedding ring as a bracelet.
I was slow in having my baby teeth fall out/adult teeth come in so my dentist pulled my remaining baby teeth when I was 10. Two teeth near the front didn’t come in, so when I got braces that same year I had chains and brackets attached to the teeth that were still inside my gums and they were pulled out by the braces.
I don’t think there was an actual health concern though, it was mainly cosmetic. I’m assuming the teeth would have eventually grown in on their own.
Don’t worry about it right now. The dentist and ortho both know about it and, if they’re even halfway competent, will check those areas every visit and monitor their progress. They should give you a status update at the end of the appointment.
Both of my adult lower lateral incisors never came in; on X-rays, you can see these tiny proto-teeth buds kinda just chillin way down below the surface. My dentist kept an eye on them and it became clear those lazy fuckers weren’t gonna make an appearance.
We didn’t have a ton of extra money, so he monitored for a bit longer. It became clear that I would have physical problems (my lower jaw would likely be undersized enough to impact my bite and other things) and not just cosmetic - that’s when he “strongly recommended” braces.
If you want, I could give you a rundown of the entire orthodontic shebang I had done (the different phases and equipment needed) that changed my jawbone and made room for amazing looking fake incisors.
