Child has grown adult molars instead of milk ones

[Username9898]

Sorry for the slightly weird thread title - couldn’t think how else to summarise it!
A dentist visit today has revealed that my 5 year old already has four adult molars. These milk teeth never grew and the adults ones just came in instead. In hindsight this might explain why teething was such a trauma!! The dentist didn’t seem overly concerned - more fascinated as apparently he’s never seen this in real life! He said that it could cause problems later on as there might not be room for his other molars to come in properly. Other than that he just advised us to take extra good care of his teeth as obviously these ones have to last him ten years longer than most peoples! I just wondered if anyone else has ever heard of this or had any experience. Google is being very unhelpful!

I haven't heard of this however me and my sister have the opposite problem where we kept our baby molars into adulthood and as they crumbled and we got x-rays as adults we found we didn't have any adult molars. I've had them crowned now.

I suspect the future will be the same as ours where it's possibly braces if teeth get overcrowded (sometimes they will remove a baby tooth to allow adult teeth to grow in) and a bit better than usual with mouth hygiene needed

I'm sure all will be well in the end

Thank you 😊 The internet mentions missing adult teeth a lot but not the other way around. Interestingly my MIL has that issue - she never grew adult incisors. I assume it part of the same hereditary things and that we have braces in our future!

The first adult molars don't have deciduous predecessors. Average age for eruption is 6 years.

@BirminghamNewStreet in his mouth he has his incisors, then a deciduous molar (that’s smaller in size), then what the dentist described as an adult molar (which is about twice the size of the one next to it). The internet says that the tooth in that position would normally be lost around age 10-12, but he hasn’t grown a deciduous molar to lose there, it’s jumped straight to the adult one. I guess his deciduous second molar just didn’t develop for some reason? I’m a bit confused to be honest.

How many teeth in total are in your child's lower jaw? 10 or 12?

There are 10 @BirminghamNewStreet

Is it the same scenario in the Upper jaw OP?
If the Es are congenitally absent, it can indicate that the permanent successor -5s will also be congenitally absent. Not always. An OPT radiograph, probably in a year or two, will confirm which unerupted permanents are present and your dentist can start to make a plan regarding whether orthodontic involvement will be necessary.
Regarding congenitally absent permanents, 5s are one of the more common teeth to be missing.

My 6 year old has just got a set of adult molars, I thought it was pretty common?

@BirminghamNewStreet Yes it’s exactly the same in his upper jaw. Thank you so much for the explanation 💐It was all a bit rushed in the dentists yesterday and it was only when I got home that I started to worry a bit about it. I assume it is somehow hereditary as his grandmother and her sister have some missing teeth.

Completely normal

DS was an early teether - 8 teeth by 6.5 months, 16 teeth by 12 months, 20 by 2 years, lost front baby teeth at 4, all adult teeth by 9 and wisdom teeth by 18. Like most things child related there's huge variation.

After the initial 20 milk teeth they grow their first set of adult molars at around age 6. They don't replace milk teeth, they are in addition to the milk teeth

Oops, should have read your post properly @Username9898 . So the adult teeth are counted in the 20 teeth your dc has?

@dementedpixie yes the 20 include the adult teeth. I think it’s very likely he’s congenitally missing his 2nd premolars and that his adult molars just erupted early.

Sorry but it isn't. Read the post again.
OP is an early erupting his 6s. His Es haven't erupted /developed.