Two rows of teeth

It may surprise you when you suddenly notice your child's adult teeth growing in behind the baby teeth. Furthermore, you would expect the baby teeth to fall out before the adult teeth come in.  But in some, actually many children, this is not the case. In approximately 10% of children, the adult teeth can grow in behind the baby teeth giving the child two rows of teeth. At Innovation Drive Dental in Vaughan we often refer to this as "shark teeth". You can rest assured that this is not an EMERGENCY. In most cases, this does not require any treatment at all, and often we just let nature take its course.

                                                                              

 

Firstly, kudos to you for looking in your child's mouth. It is important for you to regularly inspect your child's mouth for signs of decay or infection or even to assess their brushing skills. When children are brought to our office with "shark teeth " as the main concern Dr Shulman will examine the baby teeth to see if they are wiggly at all. This could be a visual and a clinical exam or may require an x-ray to see if the baby teeth are following the normal pattern of exfoliation (falling out). Most of the time the baby teeth will still fall out on their own ( or the child will be asked to wiggle it daily to help it along). The tongue will eventually push the adult teeth forward.  Leaving the child in this state with no intervention will NOT be a factor in whether the child will need braces in the future or not.  Sometimes if the child is older and has lost many other baby teeth and these baby teeth are still hanging around it may be recommended to remove them. In other cases, the parent will request removal of the baby teeth as their wish. One of our main concerns is if leaving both rows of teeth cause the child to be unable to clean the teeth properly, they are more susceptible to tooth decay. For this reason, we will recommend extraction of the residual baby teeth.

The most common area for this to occur is on the lower front teeth. But it can occur in other places in the mouth, such as in the upper canine teeth. This gives the child the appearance of "fangs". When this occurs we often intervene by extracting the baby teeth as braces might be necessary to pull that tooth into line.

                                                         

If you are concerned about the development of your child's teeth please call 905-264-0333 and make an appointment. At Innovation Drive Dental in Woodbridge, we are happy to take a look and to give you the best advice that we can. It may not require any treatment or maybe put under observation. If you are an existing patient you can send us a picture if you are concerned and we will let you know if an in-person appointment is necessary. All attempts are being made be to limit in-person appointments during the COVID -19 pandemic. If you are not an existing patient we have limited ability to consult over email or phone. We may need to do an in-person exam   We look forward to treating you and your child.