Your Child’s Teething Schedule: Is It Normal?

Posted on October 15, 2020 | Hot Topics

If you’ve ever wondered if your child is getting her teeth “on schedule,” then join the club! Can you remember seeing that little white sliver poking through your baby’s gums, and realizing that your baby is growing up? Maybe you waited an eternity for that tooth to grow in more, or felt like it was forever before you saw another tooth appear! Perhaps you did a quick google search and noticed that your baby wasn’t getting teeth in the “normal” pattern…but what exactly IS normal??

We can easily fall into the trap of comparing our own child’s development to others, and that can become a dangerous habit. In almost every area of child development, there’s a range. No one child is the same, so don’t get worried if she seems to be behind, or even ahead, of other babies her age. Here’s what you can expect:

When you’ll see the first tooth

You can expect to see your baby’s first tooth around six months. This is the average age, so know that it’s still normal to see that first tooth anywhere between three and twelve months (Dr. Barber’s daughter didn’t get her first tooth until 13 months!).

Which tooth should come first?

It’s the most common for the first tooth to be one of the two bottom middle teeth, or the central incisor. Generally, the second tooth is its pair, and that will typically follow within 3-5 weeks.

Teething is a process

We can call it a “schedule,” but the teething process can vary, both in timing and the pattern in which teeth erupt. Your child will regularly be “erupting” new teeth until the last baby molar comes in, typically between age 2-3 (thus called 2 year molars) . By three years old, your child will have all of their primary (baby) teeth.

Then comes “shedding”, or exfoliation

Your child spends the first three years of her life growing teeth, and then right around the age of five or six, she’ll start losing (shedding) those teeth. Just as the teething “schedule” can differ for each baby, so can the rate at which kids lose their teeth. Don’t panic during this process either. There are some children who lose their first tooth as early as four and as late as seven. Kids who got their first baby tooth early tend to lose their first tooth early as well!

As important as it is to keep an eye on your child’s teething development, it’s equally as important to make sure to set up healthy oral hygiene habits early. Read more about brushing your baby’s teeth HERE.