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Should It Hurt For Baby Teeth To Come Out?

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If your child's baby teeth are causing them pain and discomfort, it could indicate that there's a problem going on. When children lose their baby teeth, they shouldn't go through any significant pain during the process. If your child is experiencing pain with their baby teeth, it could mean that something has gone wrong. Here's what might be happening.

Adult Teeth Don't Push Baby Teeth

It's a common misconception that baby teeth are pushed out of the way by adult teeth moving into their spot. This isn't actually quite what happens.

When the body is preparing an adult tooth to move in, the first thing that happens is that the baby tooth starts to release. This is a gradual process. The root of the tooth is reabsorbed into the body, the gums start to release their hold on the tooth, and once it's become loose enough, the tooth should simply fall out. Adult teeth don't actually start moving in - ordinarily - until that baby tooth is already gone.

When It's Not Ready

Unfortunately, this process doesn't always work the way that it should. It is possible for a fully-developed adult tooth to have nowhere to go if the baby tooth hasn't gotten out of the way in time.

When this happens, the body will start trying to erupt the new adult teeth even though there's a baby tooth blocking it in. This is usually where the pain begins for children, as one of their teeth is literally being pushed out of place. If the baby tooth hasn't lost its roots, it's almost impossible for an adult tooth to come in properly. Instead, your child could experience having their baby tooth pushed out of alignment, which can not only be painful, but could mean your child's adult teeth could come in crooked even if their baby teeth were straight.

What to Do

If your child is having any kind of pain in their teeth, you need to see a dentist. Your dentist will be able to tell with a painless x-ray that your child's adult teeth are coming in too fast or that the baby teeth haven't released. If this is happening, they can manually extract the baby tooth to clear it out of the way for the adult tooth.

Many children lose their baby teeth without any incidents at all, but that doesn't mean that everyone will. If your child goes through any kind of pain with their baby teeth, get help from a dentist, like William E Kemper DMD, right away.


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