Sequence of how baby teeth come out

We originally posted this article 3 years ago. It's been super popular ever since so I thought it's useful to have it up on the home page again for a while. Enjoy - Stef

Now that our little champ has pushed out his first two teeth and we are (anxiously) awaiting the next ones to emerge I was wondering what the usual sequence for teething is anyway. Well - as it turns out the good people of the "Journal of American Dental Association" already did some research back in 1974 to answer exactly that question.

[image by sedron.com]

Eruption Sequence of baby teeth (also called "Deciduous Teeth" or "Primary Teeth") in months after birth:

Baby teeth eruption out of sequence

Last year I did some fact finding on the eruption sequence of baby teeth (i.e. which teeth appear first and then which appear next). All well and good I thought as sure enough our little man followed the statistical eruption sequence (if a bit late) - lower central incisors, upper central then lateral incisors (well one of them) ... then ... nothing for 6 months! I was beginning to get worried when I noticed some full on teething symptoms again (drooling, rosy cheeks, nappy rash, etc) but no tooth in sight.

Finally we realised that one of the first upper molars was actually coming through ... and not only that ... a few days later we spotted another one on the other side, then another two. So within a couple of weeks he suddenly had 4 first molars! All of them appearing totally out of sequence of course!

Father time: brushing baby teeth

My favourite time of the day at the moment is just before I put my son Noah to bed and we go to the bathroom together to brush his teeth. It's just awesome - he knows exactly what's coming when I say "time to brush your teeth" and he's all smiles, puts his little finger in his mouth and mimics the brushing motion. Ahhhh ...

I didn't actually realise that you had to start brushing babies' teeth pretty early on. Noah has got 4 teeth at the moment and we started brushing his teeth when the upper ones were through. Amazingly he pretty much got it straight away and loved it after a few days. Now he gets very excited about brushing his teeth. Although it's mostly me who is doing the brushing he is already quite good with the general concept and tries to do it himself.