What Happens If One Of Your Child's Adult Teeth Never Comes In?
While this is a fairly rare occurrence, it does happen, so it's important to be prepared with what to do if your child's adult tooth never comes in. Typically, once your child loses their baby tooth, you will pretty immediately notice the emergence of the adult tooth. If this doesn't happen within a few weeks or so, then it's time to take action to discover what the problem might be. Here's what you should do:
- Go to the Dentist: First, you will want to schedule an appointment with your child's dentist. From here, your dentist will take x-rays to determine if the adult tooth is actually missing, if it is being pushed down because of overcrowding of the mouth, or if it is growing in at an angle and therefore being pushed down by other teeth.
- Visit an Orthodontist: If it's determined that the adult tooth is actually missing, then you are going to want to go over options with your child's orthodontist. Most likely, they will want to use orthodontic treatment to close the gap once the other baby teeth have been lost and the other adult teeth have grown in. You can click here for more info about orthodontic care. However, you can also talk about replacing the missing tooth with something like a bridge or dental implant, which should be discussed with your child's dentist.
- Replace the Tooth if the Bite is Good: Before making a choice on which way to go about filling that gap of a missing adult tooth, it's good to keep in mind that if your child's bite is good after the rest of their adult teeth have come in, then it's best to just replace the tooth with a bridge or implant. This way, your child doesn't have to go through orthodontic treatment, which is going to have to correct the bite that's already good once the teeth shift to fix that gap.
- Consider Extraction: If the problem is overcrowding and the adult tooth is actually there, but just being pushed down, then you will need to discuss extraction of the teeth and possible orthodontic treatment to correct the bite. Orthodontic treatment will not only adjust the crooked adult tooth, but also any other crowded teeth.
- Don't React too Quickly: Overall, your dentist and orthodontist are going to come up with the best solution over time. It is not always something that needs to be fixed right away before the rest of the adult teeth have had a chance to come in.
When you know what steps might need to be taken, you can be sure that you understand that a missing adult tooth is nothing to panic about and can definitely be corrected over time.
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