Your child is likely to start getting baby teeth around 8 months and will beginning losing them from age six going forward.

The natural progression puts 20 baby teeth into your child's mouth, which will eventually be replaced by 28 permanent teeth excluding the wisdom teeth.

Some parents often ask family dentists what is the point of brushing baby teeth if they are all going to fall off anyway. Below are the reasons for taking care of baby teeth even though they are only temporary:

• Although they will fall off eventually, baby teeth are a great way to teach children how they will take care of their permanent teeth when they grow older.

• An important aspect to note is that permanent teeth grow below baby teeth as such decay of the baby tooth can affect the growth of the permanent tooth.

• Well formed baby teeth help your child learn to speak properly

Generally, children whose baby teeth came early will also likely start losing them early.

Loosening Teeth

When a child says that their tooth is loose it marks a growth milestone because children's baby teeth typically don't loosen until the permanent teeth below pushes it out to take it's place.

It is possible for a child to lose their baby teeth before the permanent tooth is ready to erupt, especially by trauma caused by an accident or gum disease.

In such a case, you have to visit your family dentist at a place like Family & Cosmetic Dentistry and talk to the pediatric dentist who will put a custom fit plastic holder (spacer) in until the adult tooth is ready to emerge. This will help prevent any future spacing problems.

Some children will lose their first tooth as early as 4 years and some as late as 7 years. Should your child start losing teeth before 4, then you should consult a dentist just to make sure there is no underlying problem.

The baby teeth are likely fall out in the same succession that they came in. In fact, at some point it may seem like they are losing teeth too fast, but if the general pattern of losing them is more or less spaced out the same way they came in, then all should be well.

Remind your child not to yank out a loose tooth as it should fall out on it's own with a bit of wiggling. Yanking out a tooth makes the broken root more vulnerable to infection.

In the rare event that a child's loose tooth refuses to come out, you may have to visit your family dentist for it to be pulled. Losing baby teeth is rarely as painful as the process of teething.

In the end, your dentist can best tell you if teeth should be falling out as quickly as they are. This is the value of regular dental cleaning visits. This seemingly innocuous visit is actually the time when the dentist can check on your child's overall dental health and catch issues early.