Just like permanent teeth, milk teeth are not only necessary for eating but also for speech.
Milk teeth also play a crucial role in the development and growth of the jaw. The premature loss of a single milk tooth (trauma, extraction after excessive decay) will have an effect on its neighbouring teeth causing them to move or incline, thus reducing the space available for the permanent tooth to follow.
The replacement of milk teeth by their permanent counter-parts usually follows a precise “schedule”. Milk incisors are lost between the ages of 6 and 8, then there is a pause and the schedule continues around 10 with the canines and the first molars, and ends at the age of12 with the secondary molars.
At Dentist Kids, we take special care in preserving milk teeth since many of them can remain in the mouth for as long as 9 years…