The most useful comparison is not an eruption chart. It is the same tooth on the other side of your child’s mouth. When the matching tooth has been in for more than about six months and its partner still has not appeared, or when teeth are arriving out of their...
Around age six, four permanent molars come in at the very back of your child’s mouth, and no baby tooth falls out to make room for them. They are additions to the arch, not replacements. Nothing gets wiggly, there is no gap, and there is no tooth for the tooth...
In the lower front teeth, a permanent tooth pushing up behind a baby tooth that has not fallen out yet is a normal way for that tooth to arrive. Parents call it shark teeth because of the double row. In most children the baby tooth loosens over the following weeks,...
Yes. A child can absolutely have a cavity with no pain at all, and that is the usual situation rather than the exception. Tooth decay only starts to hurt once it has progressed far enough to irritate the living tissue inside the tooth, and by then it has often been...
After a dental appointment involving numbing medicine, the lip, cheek, and tongue stay numb longer than the tooth does. That gap is when most self-inflicted bites happen, and young children are the most likely to bite, chew, or suck on an area simply because it feels...
If your child’s filling or crown has come out, keep the piece if you can find it, switch to soft foods, and call the office to describe what happened. Do not try to glue or cement it back in at home. Most lost restorations are not emergencies, but the tooth underneath...
Check your child before you check the tooth. Once you know they are alert and the bleeding is manageable, look for the broken piece and put it straight into a small container with enough milk, saline, or your child’s own saliva to cover it completely. Then call us. A...
A pimple-like bump on the gum next to a tooth is most often a draining sinus tract: a small channel that has opened to release pressure from an infection at the root of that tooth. That is why these bumps so often do not hurt, and why they frequently shrink for a few...
Smiling Kids Pediatric Dentistry Indy often hears questions from parents in Indianapolis, IN about thumb sucking and whether it’s something to worry about. This common childhood habit can be a source of comfort, but it can also raise concerns when it continues beyond...
A baby or permanent tooth that turns gray or brown after a bump is usually reacting to the original injury, not to something new. An impact can damage the tiny blood vessels inside the tooth, and pigment from that bleeding seeps into the layer beneath the enamel,...
