Shark Teeth

A frequent concern from parents with a child getting new teeth, is that their children are getting “shark teeth”.

This term is often used to describe when a child is getting new adult teeth while the baby teeth are still in the mouth, forming two rows of teeth. Although the condition looks alarming, it is mostly harmless and occurs quite often (about 20% of the time).

Around age six, a child’s lower two central teeth usually get loose and consequently get replaced by adult teeth. The reason that the baby teeth become loose is due to adult teeth eruption. As the adult teeth make their way up, they resorb the roots of the baby teeth and cause them to become loose. Shark teeth occur when adult teeth come too far com too far from the baby teeth’s roots, thus failing to loosen them, so the child ends up with two rows of teeth.

To help this condition, we recommend that you make an appointment to see us.

At the appointment we will:

Take an x-ray to determine how much of the root is left on the baby teeth.
If there is minimal to no root left, we would recommend that the patient “wiggles” the teeth out themselves. (Since they will eventually have to wiggle out 20 baby teeth)
If there is a significant amount of root, we recommend extraction of those baby teeth.
Once the “shark teeth” are gone, the adult teeth tend to grow in without further intervention.

Written By: Dr. Ngo

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