Retained Baby Teeth

Losing baby teeth is usually an exciting milestone for children, but sometimes, teeth don’t fall out when they should. There are several reasons why baby teeth might stay past their time, but at Kidz Connextion Dental and Braces, we’ll figure out what’s going on and make a treatment plan.

As adult teeth erupt, they dissolve the roots of the baby teeth ahead of them. If all goes well, the baby teeth will fall out shortly before adult teeth move in to take their place. When the baby teeth remain in position, we call them “retained deciduous teeth.” This often happens when the adult teeth come in at an angle or in a different position from the baby teeth, leaving the child with two sets of the same teeth. This most commonly affects the lower incisors. In these cases, we would recommend extracting the baby teeth because it will be impossible to effectively brush them and they could cause bite problems.

Another common reason for baby teeth to remain in place is that there is no adult tooth coming in to push it out. This can happen for genetic reasons and is more common in girls. It would require more extensive treatments to correct, but it probably doesn’t mean the child’s health is in danger. Baby teeth might also have to be extracted if their roots are fused to the jaw bone and show no signs of weakening. But we don’t want to extract baby teeth when there is still a possibility a permanent tooth will push it out naturally, which is why it’s important for us to be able to do regular assessments.

Kidz Connextion Dental & Braces maintains offices around Phoenix. To find out more, visit our website at Kidz Connextion.