What You Should Know About Healthy Teeth Formation
Having an impeccable set of pearly whites is essential to looking and feeling your best. It's also an important part of your overall health. But having a great-looking grill doesn't always come easy. It takes a strong commitment to oral hygiene and maintaining a balanced diet. There is also a lot happening developmentally that can affect your teeth, starting before we're born and continuing though adulthood. In fact, when you consider everything that needs to happen on the long road to fully formed fangs, it's amazing that any of us are smiling at all.
In many ways, we all have our mothers to thank (or blame) for our smiles. Teeth begin forming during the sixth week of gestation, which is before many women know they are pregnant [source: American Dental Hygienists Association]. This is why a mother's diet is very important to the development of healthy teeth in her baby. Deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals, including calcium and Vitamin D, can result in weak or underdeveloped teeth [source: Medscape].
For parents, the first appearance of a baby's teeth marks an exciting right of passage on the road from helpless infant to adventurous toddler. The first to emerge are usually the two front teeth on the lower jaw [source: Children's Hospital Boston]. These are called the incisors, which are soon followed by the molars and the canines. Most kids have a full set of 20 primary or "baby" teeth by the third year of life.
The next big event in the development of healthy teeth occurs when the permanent or "adult" teeth begin to descend from the jaw, pushing the baby teeth out in the process. For most kids, this process begins around age 6 or 7 [source: Children's Hospital Boston]. By age 12, most kids have 28 adult teeth. The emergence of the wisdom teeth, usually between the ages of 17 and 21, completes the adult set of 32 teeth [source: KidsHealth]. At least, this is how it happens when everything goes according to plan. To understand what can go wrong, let's take a quick look at the science of permanent teeth formation.
The Science of Permanent Teeth Formation
While there are things that can go wrong with tooth formation, most people develop healthy teeth on a fairly standard timetable. Around age 5, bone development has progressed enough to expand the facial bones of children, opening up space for the permanent teeth. Larger facial bones also explain why we are able to have more permanent (and larger) teeth than baby teeth. Baby teeth tend to be smaller and whiter.
Developing strong, healthy teeth is truly something to smile about. After all, the shape and position of the teeth can affect speech, eating, and the overall appearance of the face. But there are certain things that can cause tooth formation to take a wrong turn.
For example, children who experience delays in muscular development may also have delays in tooth formation [source: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center]. Down syndrome and cerebral palsy are also linked with poorly formed teeth [source: National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center]. In some cases, one or more baby or adult teeth may not develop at all. This is common in children with oral clefts.
You may not always be able to control how your child's teeth develop, but there are some things you can do to help your kids achieve a joyful set of jaws, such as keeping the teeth clean throughout life. This includes baby teeth since decay in the early years can lead to eating and speech problems [source: American Dental Association]. Keeping teeth clean, with regular brushing and flossing, also ensures that a child remains free of cavities, pain, and oral infections that can cause permanent damage to the mouth and jaw.
Proper tooth formation is important for the overall health of children as well as adults. Evidence suggests that having a healthy mouth can reduce the risk of heart disease, sexual problems, and weight gain. And if all this doesn't have you diving for the dental floss, remember that taking care of your teeth is the best way to maintain a spectacular smile for life.