Radiolexicon Milk Teeth (Archive)

The milk teeth are not yet present at birth, they are only used later, the child drinks milk first. Teeth would only hurt the mother at the beginning of breastfeeding. When the baby is older, the milk teeth are replaced by 32 permanent teeth.

By Renate Rutta

New teeth (Stock.XCHNG)

“I only know that I don’t have any milk teeth in front, so no incisors, I think the canines are still there and some molars.

I got two more milk teeth, they were wiggling, and then I pulled them out.

They got wobbly, sometimes I played on them and then I pulled them out.

So if you put your tooth under your pillow, there’s some money the next day.

Then I know a story that she brought gifts for a tooth or put a few pennies under her pillow. I know that my mother played the tooth fairy with me. Then she gave me presents and then I took the presents and Mom picked up my teeth.”

Jens and Stephan are both ten years old. In the children’s course on Wednesday afternoon at the University Dental Clinic in Cologne, they have their teeth examined. Both know the story of the tooth fairy who comes at night and exchanges the fallen out milk tooth under her pillow for a little reward.

Jens can still remember when his first milk tooth wobbled:

“So I ran to my mama and said, mama, a tooth is shaking, I remember. I’ve already heard that teeth fall out and I thought I’d finally get my first really growing permanent tooth.”

But why are milk teeth called milk teeth?

Privatdozent Dr. Michael Wicht is senior physician at the Poliklinik für Zahnerhaltung und Parodontologie of the University of Cologne.

“This is relatively easy to answer because the milk is very bright and has a bluish shimmer and that is exactly what a milk tooth has, such a bluish colour and that is why it is called dentis lactatis, which means milk teeth, in technical terms.

Jens already knows that milk teeth differ from permanent teeth:

“I can only see that the milk teeth, they’re just a little smaller than the real ones.”

Otherwise they wouldn’t have a place in the children’s smaller jaw. But there are even more differences: Senior Physician Dr. Wicht:

“There are only twenty milk teeth, five in each quadrant, they are slightly more compact in anatomy, the occlusal surfaces are narrower and the roots look completely different, because the permanent germs are in the roots of the milk teeth. There is a group of teeth in adults that do not exist in children, the so-called premolars, are the small molars that do not exist in children.

The dentin is less pronounced, the nerve in children’s teeth is much larger and the enamel is a little differently structured than in permanent teeth”.

The milk teeth are not yet present at birth, they are only used later, the child drinks milk first. Teeth would only hurt the mother at the beginning of breastfeeding. When the baby is older, the milk teeth are replaced by 32 permanent teeth.

“The first tooth breaks through at six months, that’s variable. This can happen at the age of three months, and it can also happen that a child with one year of age does not have a tooth. On average, the first lower incisor is said to be six months old and so at two or two and a half years old the milk teeth are complete.”

“So I am mother of two children, my son is five years old and my daughter three years old and they got their milk teeth relatively differently, i.e. once at different times. Of course, I first had the experience with my son, who got his first tooth at about the age of six months. At the beginning we didn’t know why he was so squeaky until you saw the first piece of the tooth.”

Dr. Esther Lowden is a specialist dentist for gum disease at the Poliklinik für Zahnerhaltung und Parodontologie of the University of Cologne.

“With our daughter it was so that with six months still no tooth was to be seen and we then already began to worry, when comes now the first tooth, which came with late eight months only. From the experience of how to help the children, we had the best experience that we gave them bite rings that we cooled. But our daughter also liked to take a cool carrot to chew on.”

First both children had their lower middle incisors.

“You can see that the incisors break or the milk teeth break when you look in, that it looks a little thicker, a little reddened and that the children feel it positive when you massage on it. Next came the upper incisors and the canines were the most difficult.”

“The milk teeth must grow through the bone upwards into the oral cavity or downwards, depending on which jaw we are in. And this shooting out of the milk teeth causes pain to the children, because it goes through the periosteum and this is very sensitive and later also through the gums and there the children react unspecifically with symptoms of pain, nausea, partly also with fever and become then almost sickly.

Because the enamel of milk teeth is thinner than that of permanent teeth, tooth decay can spread faster in milk teeth. Juices and sweetened teas in the teat bottle can cause great damage to children. Dr. Esther Lowden therefore pays attention to good dental care for her children right from the start.

“We started from the first tooth that was there playfully with the dental care with a toothbrush. Now it has become part of the daily ritual that brushing teeth is part of it and is fun. That actually works out quite well, the children know that this is part of it. They brush themselves with the children’s toothbrush and I brush both children’s teeth. “

When the children come to school, the first milk teeth shake, as with Stephan.

“They started wiggling, then I pulled on it, then they fell out.”

“The breakthrough is as genetically determined by the permanent teeth as it is by the milk teeth, i.e. the permanent tooth receives the signal now is time to grow out and then you have to imagine it as if it eats the milk tooth from below. We call this resorbing. All these structures from the root inside to the outside, until afterwards the tooth only exists as a crown, the milk tooth, and then it can no longer hold on to the periodontium and then falls out.”

The milk teeth are just not put on for the whole life. At some point their time is over and they fall out. Many people say to themselves that if this is the case, i.e. if milk teeth fall out soon anyway, then dental care is not as important for milk teeth as it is for permanent teeth. But the senior physician disagrees: One should make sure that milk teeth are preserved until they change naturally.

“If milk teeth are not cared for and there is tooth decay or serious tooth decay, it can lead to the loss of the milk tooth and this can lead the children to make unpleasant acquaintance with the dentist, which one would like to avoid better. It can also have consequences for the permanent tooth. In the worst case, in the case of a space-filling root inflammation, possibly also connected with a swelling, it can be that the permanent tooth germ is damaged.”

“I already cleaned my milk teeth because my mother and father stabbed me with it so that the milk teeth would stay beautiful and then the tooth fairy would come and give me a nice present.”

Like this post? Please share to your friends:
Christina Cherry
Leave a Reply

;-) :| :x :twisted: :smile: :shock: :sad: :roll: :razz: :oops: :o :mrgreen: :lol: :idea: :grin: :evil: :cry: :cool: :arrow: :???: :?: :!: