It’s tooth fairy time! Baby teeth start to drop out at around 6 years, but there is some variation in this so don’t worry if nothing is happening until about 8. You child will, no doubt, be well aware of how many of their friends have/have not lost teeth! Altogether 20 baby teeth will be lost. This process goes on until about the age of 12 to 14 years. Usually 8 front teeth are lost between 6 and 8 years, then there is a gap for 2 or 3 years when nothing much happens, then the baby canines and molars will start to be lost at around 11 years. If your child is especially late in losing baby teeth it can sometimes be an indication that the adult teeth are either misplaced or not there at all. See "absent teeth" for more information.

A very common occurrence that can cause concern to parents is that sometimes the lower first adult incisors (front teeth) start to come through on the tongue side of the baby teeth. This can result in a double row of teeth. Don’t worry; in the vast majority of cases the tongue will push the new teeth forward and things will sort themselves out. The same applies if the teeth come through slightly squint. Rarely the double tooth situation can persist for some time. At this point it is sometimes necessary for your dentist to remove the baby tooth that is not being pushed out. As you can imagine, we want to try to avoid taking the tooth if possible – we don’t want to put children off.

If teeth remain in the wrong place as they get older, your dentist may refer your child to an orthodontist. Orthodontic treatment wouldn’t normally start before 11 years old though.