My Child Has a Permanent Tooth Coming in Behind Their Baby Tooth

When your child is around 6 years of age, they’ll begin losing their teeth and growing in their adult teeth. Sometimes, their adult tooth will appear behind the baby tooth on their lower jaw. It’s pretty common to see the adult teeth appear behind the baby teeth here.

As the tongue rests in its place in the mouth, it’ll push these adult teeth forward to then push out the baby teeth. Once the permanent tooth moves forward into the correct spot, the baby tooth becomes loose and then falls out.

Lower Adult Teeth Behind Baby Teeth

Sometimes the adult tooth will not move forward into the baby tooth’s place. Instead, it erupts behind the tooth and your child may sport an extra set of teeth like a shark! We’ll wait a few months to see if it will correct itself, but if it doesn’t correct itself, we can easily extract the baby teeth and the adult teeth will move into their place. In most cases, the lower adult teeth will move to push the baby teeth out.

Permanent Teeth Behind Baby Teeth on the Top

If the adult tooth has surfaced behind the baby teeth on the top of their mouth, the adult tooth most likely won’t correct itself. In this case, please give us a call and we’ll take a look to see what’s going on.

Schedule an Appointment

If you’re concerned that your child’s teeth aren’t coming in correctly, we can either take a look! When teeth are first coming in, they might look weird and out of place. In most cases, the teeth will correct themselves. It can be a slow process. We'll continue to watch the teeth's progress at your child's regular dental check-ups. Please let us know if you have any questions or if your child needs to be seen soon!