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Baby teeth are not important.

Who cares. You get a whole another set. Right?

This is the subject of controversy of many parent discussions. Did you know that early removal of a baby tooth is the number one cause of crowding and improper alignment of permanent teeth, especially if this happens when your child is really young. This is because the teeth sitting next to the gap may tilt or drift. Here is a link on a baby teeth eruption chart.

So when it comes to baby teeth it’s important to look at why we have baby teeth in the first place.

What is their purpose ?

Why did mother nature design our jaws to have baby teeth?

Baby teeth also known as primary or milk teeth account for a total of 20 teeth (10 in each arch). Baby teeth help with chewing food, speech, aesthetics and also act as a template for the permanent teeth to assume their proper position.

Mother nature has also added three other things in her design to help our adult teeth come into proper alignment. This is largely affected by our genetics.

Let’s take a closer look:

Primate space

The first thing one is called a primate space. This space is located between the lateral incisor (2nd from the front) and canine (3rd from the front) baby teeth in the upper jaw and behind the baby canine teeth in our lower jaw. This space acts like a reservoir of space for our adult teeth to fit as they are much bigger

Developmental Spacing

These are the little spaces that are found between the upper and lower front baby teeth. If there are no gaps between the upper and lower baby teeth your child is highly likely to have crowding of their adult teeth.

Leeway space

The third design of mother nature is the difference between the size of baby molar and adult premolar teeth, this is called leeway space. The adult premolar teeth push the baby molar teeth out. The baby molar teeth (these are the baby teeth two at the back) are on average 1-2mm bigger than the adult premolar teeth that push through. It doesn’t sound like a lot but when you think there are eight adult premolar teeth in every mouth that’s almost a whopping 8mm to 12mm extra space.

So what happens when a baby tooth is taken out early?

So when a baby tooth is taken out early (most commonly due to decay) then mother nature's engineering is affected because the other teeth will move into this gap and you get crowding. This is more of a problem when the baby molar teeth are taken out early, as some of these teeth don’t come out naturally until age 11 or 12.

So what can you do?

Luckily in most cases, a space maintainer can be placed on your kids teeth that will help to hold the space for the permanent teeth before they come through. This is often a simple band with a loop that is glued onto the tooth behind the gap. Sometimes a plate is needed if more than one baby tooth is removed. A space maintainer and plate are both very simple to place and there is no discomfort. The Orthodontist can advise you what your child might need.

So next time someone says baby teeth are not that important, we hope that you are armed with some good facts to say well actually…they are!!