Your little one has just turned 6, and when you came to pick her up from school yesterday, she had an important announcement to make. Running over to you with a beaming smile plastered across her face, she said:

“Mummy, guess what - my tooth is wobbly! My teacher says that it’ll come out soon, and then the tooth fairy will come to visit!”

For some reason, this was somewhat of a shock. You had no idea your child was about to lose their first tooth, and you wondered whether there was any information you should know on the topic.

For a child, losing their first tooth is a significant moment. Although it may feel like it happens rather unexpectedly, losing a tooth usually happens between the ages of 6 and 7. As a parent, it’s always useful to be aware of when your child may start to lose their baby teeth, and how you can make the experience meaningful for them with the story of the tooth fairy too.

So, let’s learn more about when you can expect your child to lose their baby teeth, when they will get their permanent teeth, and how you can make the experience special with the tooth fairy.

When can I expect my child to lose their baby teeth?

As mentioned, most children lose their first tooth between the ages of 6 and 7. However, this varies from child to child, and some will experience this a little earlier, or a little later. The timing of this seems to be highly influenced by the timeline of when a child started to get their baby teeth, and when their last tooth came through. For example, if your child got their first tooth earlier, then they might start losing their baby teeth earlier as well.

The average child will get their first baby tooth at 6 months, and 3 - 4 new teeth every 3 - 4 months. This will keep going until their second molars come through at age 2 - 2.5 years. At this point, most children will have all 20 of their baby teeth.

Now that we’ve outlined when your child might start to lose their baby teeth, let’s talk about how you can expect your child to start getting permanent teeth.

How will my child start to get their permanent teeth?

Once your child does start to get their permanent teeth, you’ll notice that the pattern of this might seem like the reverse of how their baby teeth came in. For example, they will probably lose the bottom two middle teeth (the mandibular central incisors), then the top two middle teeth, then the canines, then the first molars, and the second molars.

As your child reaches the age of 11 to 13, they should have lost all of their baby teeth. However, the process of them gaining all of their adult teeth won’t be complete until they are at least 17 to 22 years old.

Now that we’ve talked about how your child will start to get their permanent teeth, it’s time to talk about the tooth fairy!

How can I make the experience of my child losing their tooth special with the Tooth

Fairy?

As a child, you will surely remember the excitement of leaving your tooth underneath your pillow and looking forward to there being a coin there by morning. Well, we believe that little milestones such as a child losing their first tooth should be made fun in any way they can - and involving the story of the tooth fairy can help to keep the experience magical.

When your child loses a tooth, ask them to place it underneath their pillow at night. Then, while they are asleep, carefully exchange the tooth with a coin. The next morning your child will awaken to this surprise!

When will my child lose their first tooth?

Prepare for the Tooth Fairy with Unii.