What You Need to Know About Your Child’s Permanent Teeth

If you are a new parent, you may be a little confused about your child’s teeth and when their permanent ones come in. To help catch you up to speed, read on to learn when you can expect your child’s teeth to appear.

From Primary to Permanent

Baby teeth are technically known as primary teeth. These are the teeth that start to appear when your baby is around six months old. Primary teeth will continue to come in until your child reaches the age of two or three years old.

These teeth will stick around for a few years until they are finally replaced with permanent teeth. This usually starts happening when your child is around five years old. These permanent teeth will also continue to come in throughout adulthood.

When your child turns five or six years old, you can expect to start seeing them lose their primary teeth. And you can usually expect your child to have most of their permanent teeth by the time they turn twelve.

Primary teeth typically stop coming in once wisdom teeth show up. So, how many teeth will your child get? Everyone gets a total of 20 primary teeth – 10 on top and 10 on the bottom. However, these will eventually be replaced with a total of 32 permanent teeth, including the wisdom teeth.

The Importance of Primary Teeth

Since primary teeth are only temporary, it might be easy to think that they aren’t very important. However, they actually play a really big role in the development of your child.

You see, not only do primary teeth help your child learn to safely chew foods, but they also serve to provide the proper spacing for when the permanent and wisdom teeth later come in.

In some cases, wisdom teeth simply won’t come in at all. This usually isn’t a big deal, although some people who get wisdom teeth need to have them removed later.

You should speak with your family dentist when the time comes to get advice on how to handle your wisdom teeth.