Why there are children with a second row of teeth

With some frequency parents come to the consultation to resolve the situation of their child: they have teeth in double row. The permanent lower incisors are erupting without the milk ones having fallen off yet. Or they are just coming 'from behind'. The fact that the definitive ones come out from b

With some frequency parents come to the consultation to resolve the situation of their child: they have teeth in double row. The permanent lower incisors are erupting without the milk ones having fallen off yet. Or they are just coming 'from behind'.

The fact that the definitive ones come out from behind, in fact, is normal. But also the normal thing is that they begin to move the milk ones first, they fall, and the others go out. However sometimes it happens that those behind are already blunting and those in front do not move at all. Is this a cause for concern? Well, not in principle.

What happens if my child gets a double row of teeth

The normal thing is that with the thrust of the tongue the final incisors go going to their rightful place and little by little they reabsorb the roots of the milk ones, which will go away moving more and more and end up falling. That can happen over the course of several weeks and seem like a slow process. But whenever the mobility of milk is increasing, it means that the road is being traveled in an appropriate way.

Sometimes the definitive teeth erupt completely parallel to the milk teeth, a little behind. If they are parallel, one behind the other, it means that they are not reabsorbing, as would be normal, the roots of milk, and therefore they will not move at all. In those cases, and if this remains so for a while, you will have to consult with the dentist, who will do an x-ray to confirm the situation. In such cases it is possible to extract the milk, which will have its root practically intact.

When the cause of the double row of teeth is the lack of space

There are cases in which the final teeth have hardly room to leave. The milk teeth are very close together, without the typical spaces between tooth and tooth (diastema) and with the dental arch very narrow. This is typical of children who suck their thumbs or breathe through their mouths (or both at the same time). In these cases it is already appreciated that there is a lack of space, that the definitive teeth, starting with the incisors, have nowhere to erupt. It is the beginning of dental crowding. The definitive teeth will be placed sideways because they occupy less space. This makes them more prone to cavities and gingivitis because it is very difficult to clean the teeth properly, especially on the interdental faces. In these cases we are already having early signs that something is happening in that mouth and it will be necessary to act as soon as possible to favor the correct growth of the bone and that the teeth are placed in their correct place.

All these things are very easily controlled in routine check-ups that have to be done to children every 6 months. It is a more than prudential time to check if there are alterations, if it is necessary to act or review more frequently.