What age are children supposed to be when they lose their teeth?

[Mandy03]

My ds is turning 5 in six weeks' time, and he's just lost his first tooth (bottom front one). It was wobbly for a few weeks and then it fell out today.

Isn't he too young?! I thought they had to be about 6 when they started losing their teeth. I've noticed his other bottom front tooth is also a bit wobbly. This seems to be happening to fast! Thanks - appreciate some help.

dd1 lost her 1st one when she was 4.

dd lost her first at 5, I thought it was early as I had in my head it should be around 7, but loads of her class started losing them at a similar time, and as misdee says, I have known some start at 4! A friends little boy was 9! I wouldnt worry, think its perfectly normal and hte process takes ages, she is 7 now and lost all of front ones over an 18month period, then we havent lost some for a while, waiting for those back ones to start!

DS3 lost his first tooth when he was still 3. I was shocked (and almost blamed one of his brothers!) but the second tooth was there ready to come through, so it was clearly meant to happen.

Mandy, my dds were both 4.5 when they lost their first teeth. They both had adult teeth coming through which pushed them out. However they are now 6 and 8 and haven't got any new teeth in the last year, so after an early spurt they will probably lose/replace the rest at the usual rate!

Think around 5 is pretty normal. DS is 5 and a bit and I've just noticed three new molar teeth that have appeared behind his baby molars - I asked him if his mouth had been hurting but he said no! Didn't have a clue that new ones would come before he started to lose his teeth.

dd started to loose baby teeth at about 5.5 and they have been falling out slowly for the last 4.5 years. I thought she had lost them all until one bottom one fell out last week( i panicked a bit as she tends to wobble them herself and i thought she had managed to dislodge an adult tooth)
The dentist says she has 11 more teeth to come out. She is 10.
Better start saving up then. being a tooth fairy can be an expensive business!- toothy smile!

my oldest is 5.5 and her first tooth is just started to move she is really looking forward to the tooth fairy coming.

My dd is 5 in early October and one of her bottom teeth has been wobbly for about 2 weeks. I was v concerned and started a thread on losing milk teeth. Apparently it's not that unusual I was relieved to hear.

OMG - I didn't realise it started that early!!!! I don't remember what age I was when I lost my first tooth.......but lost my LAST tooth when I was 16yrs old (nearly 17!!!!)

Never mind when they fall out what age do they come back in? Read my Chat thread if I dont laugh I will panic!

I read it - awful. What age is he?

Have taken ds to the dentist (it took a bit of bribery to get him there) and the dentist was a little bit surprised that he'd lost his tooth so early. He said it does happen sometimes, but they prefer kids to lose their teeth 'later' rather than 'sooner', because apparently it can cause crowding if the adult teeth come in too soon. In other words, he may end up needing braces when he's around 11 or 12... darn.

He also said that ds has a high palate and that he thought he must have been a thumb-sucker, but ds has never sucked his thumb in his life!! He did have a dummy for short periods but never sucked his thumb, so I'm a bit confused about that. Perhaps it's genetic? Anyway I hope that won't cause any additional problems later on... does anyone know anything about high palates and whether it's a cause for concern?

5 is early to loose teeth but nothing to be concerned about, when you read in the child care books "your child starts to lose their teeth at six" rember you also read that they sit up at suchandsuch an age do this at this age etc etc. I know there are a few text book kids out there but i'm sure most of us have those who stubbornly do things their own way in their own time - basically those timings are derived by taking the average after looking at a vast number of infants, so there would have been some early,some late etc

generally the body has itself in gear, so as long as the tooth was lost naturally, ie not knoked out by accident or extracted due to decay etc the adult replacement should be developed and ready to come through (it is actually in part the force of the adult tooth moving upwards that lossens the baby tooth and leads to it coming out. The high palate if not caused by thumb sucking must simply be genetic, I'm assuming what the dentist means is that because it high the arch is narrow so there is potentially not enough space so the teeth may be crowded and he'll need a brace possibly to widen the arch and straighten the teeth (sounds horrific but isn't i assure you) obviously this is not a definitive diagnosis, as that can't be done without seeing his mouth, but don't worry about it as long as you keep taking him to the dentist the situation will be monitored and dealt with as necessary

dd1 lost her first tooth at four. And it was a young four, too. dd2 will be six in October, and hasn't lost any yet. I was mortified when dd1 lost a tooth so young, just worried it may mean everything else comes up faster, too.

Chicagomum, thanks for all the info. Are you a dentist? I'm just wondering if you could you tell me a little bit more about the brace to widen the arch? (Like how it's inserted & worn, and how long he may need it to correct the problem). Thank you - really appreciate the help.

yes i am a dentist but not an orthodontist and without seeing your son it would be difficult to give the appropriate info, but generally a removable brace is used with a screw in the middle of the palate which is twisted every day or so gradually forcing the two sides of the palate apart

Does the brace just look like a set of normal braces though? And do you think it will impair his speech at all? (Sorry, I know nothing about this). I'm just concerned for him, as being a young boy of 11 or 12-ish he would be horrified at the thought of wearing anything that looked too 'different', IYKWIM.

Ds saw his ENT specialist this morning, who reinforced the fact that ds will need orthodontic treatment at some stage. If it's necessary then I'm prepared to go ahead with it, I'm just hoping the experience won't be too bad for ds. No doubt it will probably cost a fortune too......

as it stands orthodontic treatment is free on the nhs for under 16's (can't say if that will be the case when he reaches the age to start treatment) it will look like any other brace (for some cases they need to wear "headgear" which uses fixtures external to the mouth to add different type of force ( diff to describe but its not painful or anything its easier if you can see it) but this is normally worn at night so noone will see him in it) as a general rule speech is affected by wearing a brace, but only for a week or so until they get used to it and then they tend to forget about it, please try not to worry about it almost all cases of "less than perfect" teeth can be easily treated with great sucess and these days with higher expectations so many kids are wearing braces is almost become part of growing up, i even have kids coming to see me who get upset because the don't need braces and their friends do

my dd lost 2 at 4, no more yet though at 5 1/2