Children changing milk teeth: Should children be pulled out by themselves?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Dang Tien Dat - Vinmec Ha Long International General Hospital.
The phenomenon of changing baby teeth is a completely natural phenomenon that occurs in all children from the age of 5. The baby teeth will one by one fall out to make room for the permanent teeth. This is sometimes extremely simple, but sometimes it is scary for many children, but not all parents know how to cope.

1. Physiological process of baby teeth

Baby teeth are the first teeth of a baby, which begin to erupt when the baby is 6 months old. When it comes to the age of replacement, the teeth will automatically fall out or loosen according to a similar rule, one after the other. At this time, under each root of a baby tooth, there will be a permanent tooth sprout that grows straight up to destroy the root of the baby tooth. Therefore, the crown of the upper baby tooth will fall out on its own to make room for the permanent tooth to erupt.
Timeline of baby teeth replacement:
Middle incisors: 5-7 years old. Lateral incisors: 7-8 years old. First molars: 9 - 10 years old. Milk canines: 10 - 11 years old. Second molars: 11 - 12 years old.

2. Should you pull out baby teeth yourself?

Normally, the baby teeth will fall out on their own and make room for the permanent teeth to grow in. However, there are many cases where, when the baby teeth reach the age of replacement, they still do not move and fall out on their own while the permanent teeth have begun to appear, requiring outside help. Without early intervention, the prolonged presence of baby teeth will make the permanent teeth grow incorrectly, the baby's teeth later on can hardly be even and beautiful.

The influence from the outside is sometimes very simple, parents can do it themselves at home. However, if not done properly or manipulated incompletely, adults inadvertently cause harm to children. Common complications in children who "have" teeth extracted at home are periodontitis due to poor hygiene, because the root of the tooth is not completely removed, causing infection or even an abscess spreading to a jaw area. face; Rough movements sometimes cause children to cry, accidentally swallow extracted teeth or cause heavy bleeding, difficult to stop bleeding, causing panic for the next tooth replacement,... In addition, In some children with a weakened immune system, congenital heart disease, type 1 diabetes, etc., it is absolutely forbidden to extract teeth at home. Because infection, if any, occurs in this group of subjects, it will be extremely severe or even lead to sepsis, septic shock, multi-organ failure and life-threatening. Therefore, if parents have children who have been diagnosed with the diseases mentioned above, when replacing teeth, they should take the child to a specialist to be prescribed prophylactic antibiotics and plan a better time for intervention.
However, in general for most cases, if baby teeth do not fall out on their own, parents should take their children to a dental clinic and consider the appropriate intervention method for each child, each tooth position. At the same time, the doctor will have available drugs to support pain relief and emergency bleeding for the child. Moreover, regular visits to the dentist will train children to have healthy oral habits in the future, the doctor will have the opportunity to perform a comprehensive examination and prepare children for healthy teeth in the future.

3. How to properly extract baby teeth at home

In cases where the child is completely healthy, has no special accompanying diseases and the baby teeth are loose, parents can support the child at home by mastering the following knowledge:
Wash hands with water and soap, dry with a clean towel before touching your child's teeth. Encourage your child to shake the tooth with his tongue or with clean hands so that the root of the tooth comes out on its own. Children who actively know how to make it suitable for themselves will be safer and more comfortable. If all else fails, explain to the child and cooperate. Absolutely do not frighten children with rough movements. Hold the crown with a clean gauze pad and use a little twisting force, the tooth will fall out. Have the child bite a cotton ball at the site of the tooth loss to stop the bleeding continuously for 5 to 10 minutes. After the bleeding has stopped, check the gums at the old site to make sure there is no trace of the old root remaining. In case there is a piece of tooth root left in the gums or strong force is required, the child is in a lot of pain but the tooth cannot fall out on its own, take the child to the doctor for intervention. Any attempt at this situation will only make matters worse.

4. Tips to prepare your child for beautiful teeth

To prepare children for a beautiful set of teeth, parents need to take action from the day their child grows the first teeth. When children replace baby teeth to switch to using permanent teeth, parents need to be even more active because these newly replaced teeth will be the baggage that follows the child for the rest of his life. To do so, parents need to adhere to the following principles:
Be an ideal role model for your child: Children love to imitate those around them. So, be a good role model and show your child the right oral health habits every day. Only teach children: Before their children turn 3 years old, parents must teach their children to master the skills of brushing their teeth with specialized toothpaste for children. Children take a piece of cream the size of a grain of rice and brush their teeth, then spit it out, rinse their mouth with clean water. Children must understand that the whole process is spitting out, not swallowing. When the erupting teeth touch each other, parents instruct the child to floss and rinse with mouthwash daily. Regular dental check-ups: Make it a habit to visit your dentist twice a year regularly. By doing it regularly, your child will find these are familiar activities and no longer feel fear. Accordingly, babies should have their first dental appointment within six months of their first birthday and then every six months thereafter.

Good diet for teeth: Explain to children the dangers to their teeth, which can easily cause toothache and tooth decay when using a lot of candy, sweet foods, and soft drinks. Do not eat at night and always brush your teeth after eating these foods. Encourage children to drink milk, eat cheese, yogurt or dairy products in general because it contains high calcium content, helping to strengthen teeth. Regularly encourage and encourage children: Praise children every day if parents see that children voluntarily rinse their mouths, brush their teeth on time and are conscious of not eating sweets without parents reminding them. The reward for children will be the freedom to choose their own toothbrush style and toothpaste. These will help children get more excited about the new dental habits that are forming. In short, keeping your child's teeth healthy is also a goal in comprehensive parenting. In particular, the extraction of baby teeth also requires certain knowledge, both to achieve the above goals, and to avoid dangerous complications for children as well as to help children in the months of changing teeth, discovering new teeth. New teeth with many interesting things.
To protect children's oral health, parents can take their children to regular dental check-ups at Vinmec International General Hospital. At Vinmec, the Department of Odonto-Stomatology is classified into many different specialties such as: Restorative dentistry, maxillofacial trauma, general dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, endodontics...
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