Shark Teeth.
No, it’s not a follow up song to Baby Shark.
Here’s the scoop: My five-year-old was eating breakfast one morning, when I noticed he was digging in his mouth. I asked him if had something stuck in his teeth and he said yes. I opened up his mouth to find this:
What in the world? Yes, those are two adult teeth starting to grow in before any baby teeth have come out. To say I was freaked out was an understatement. The baby book didn’t mention anything about this.
Of course, I ran to Google to see what was up. Turns out it’s a fairly common thing called Shark Teeth, named so because sharks have several rows of teeth. About 20 percent of the time, the adult teeth start to erupt before the roots of the baby teeth have dissolved. Weird, but nothing to worry about. My son’s dentist said the baby teeth will come out on their own the same way as in kids without Shark Teeth – by wiggling. I asked how long we could wait and wiggle, and she said six months. Very rarely, if the baby teeth don’t come out, they have to be extracted.
Sure enough, those baby teeth started getting looser and looser. But his teeth looked jacked up, lol.
Then one morning, while he was eating a mini-bagel (side note: great food for kids with loose teeth to bite), he shouted, “Mommy, my tooth came out!”
And there it was in his hand. His first lost tooth. He was a little scared of the blood, but then super excited to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy.
We are still waiting for one more bottom tooth to come out, but it’s very loose, so I don’t think an extraction will be necessary. Thank goodness. And his new teeth are coming in great despite being ahead of schedule.
So mamas, if you see some extra teeth behind those baby teeth, don’t freak out, schedule a dentist appointment and buy some mini-bagels. It will be fine.
What else has the baby book failed to mention? Drop it in the comments below!
