My two-and-a-half-year-old had a nasty fall. It caused a lot of tooth trauma, which led to him losing his front two teeth. Our normal pediatric dentist retired and we were sent to another one. Our old dentist had always warned me that we want to save as many baby teeth as possible because if they’re taken out too early the teeth would shift. Now, here my son is with two front teeth missing when he is a toddler. I spoke to the new dentist about getting him a dental flipper and he just snapped at me and said the idea was ludicrous. Now what do I do? I don’t want his teeth to shift everywhere.

Kelsey

Dear Kelsey,

First, I want to talk about this new dentist and then I’ll answer your question. I know this is the dentist you were sent to, but I think you need to find another dentist. This one is not serving you well. One of the most important skills of a pediatric dentist , other than the actual dentistry part, is good communication with the parents.

These are your children and you are responsible for their care. Of course, you will have questions! It’s ridiculous of HIM to think that your question is stupid. After all, if you went to dental school you wouldn’t need him. He’ll have the information you don’t and instead of acting the way he did, he should have kindly and patiently explained to you why he didn’t think it would be a good solution.

Whether he was right or not, he handled this badly. I would like you to find a pediatric dentist who is more receptive to questions.

As it turns out, he was actually correct about the dental flipper. There are a few reasons why you wouldn’t want one for your sweet boy. First, it is removable. Even if he was the most responsible toddler on the planet and never removed this device that will likely feel weird to him in his mouth, it is a choking hazard.

Additionally, he is constantly growing, including his jaw. This means he will outgrow the flipper many times between now and the time his adult teeth come in.

There is good news for you, though. When your retired dentist told you about teeth shifting, he was referring to the importance of keeping in his baby molars. These have to stay in place until your son is around twelve years of age. The other teeth are fine to come out much sooner. His front teeth will be fine with the space left as is.

You may now be wondering, well what if he loses a molar? Great question! Dentists have a way of protecting that space using a space maintainer. It is a small apparatus placed in the open area in a way that keeps the space open until his twelve-year-old molars are ready to come in.

I hope this helped to put your mind at ease.
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