Are you seeing double when you look inside your child’s mouth?

If you’ve noticed your child sprouting their adult teeth right behind their baby teeth, you might have wondered if there’s something fishy going on.

Well, there is… but not in the bad way you may think! SHARK TEETH is actually a pretty common condition in children that occurs when the baby teeth are still present in the mouth when the adult teeth come in, creating a presence of two rows of teeth (like with sharks).

Everyone’s journey is different.

The majority of children will lose their baby (milk) teeth and acquire their new adult (permanent) teeth between the ages of 5-7. Typically, the roots of the baby teeth will become resorbed (or dissolved) by the eruption of the permanent teeth – allowing the baby teeth to naturally fall out. However, when a child’s permanent tooth does not erupt in the area underneath his or her milk tooth, there will be no significant force to push it out. Thus, a permanent tooth has erupted, but the baby tooth or teeth still remain in place. This is just one theory as to why shark teeth occur in children.

Just keep swimmin’…

While it’s definitely normal to have a fear of sharks, you shouldn’t worry too much about your child’s shark teeth! If your child’s baby teeth are a little loose, just give it some time. Although, if they’re not loose at all and are on the same level as the adult teeth, schedule an appointment with the dentist. He or she will be able to decide whether they should be removed or if it’s safe to wait and watch (which is usually the case). Or if you’d like to get an opinion from our Hamilton dentist, he would love to help! Simply give Westdale Dental a call today.