Cutting teeth out of order October 19, 2006
Posted by Karen Joy in Medical Stuff, The Kids.trackback
Baby teeth usually grow in a fairly specific sequence — usually the top or bottom two incisors are cut first, followed by the other pair that didn’t cut through the surface first.
Audrey cut her first tooth, her bottom right incisor, on October 5, the day before she turned 6 months. The last few days, she’s been acting… not herself, and I figured it was b/c she’s cutting another tooth. I kept checking, though, and couldn’t find it. Finally, I made a good sweep of her whole mouth yesterday, and come to find out she’s either cutting the top left canine, or the baby molar that comes in right behind it!! Ack!
I didn’t know if this cutting teeth out of sequence thing was odd but normal, or if it spoke to something more sinister. So, I…
- Tried to find info online. It wasn’t an exhaustive search, but other than a couple of blogs belonging to moms whose kids were going through the same thing, I found nothing.
- Called the nurse helpline for our insurance. She read me a lot of stuff about teething that I already knew, but she couldn’t find any info on it, nor had she heard of that happening before.
- Called her pediatrician. The triage nurse told me to call a pediatric dentist, b/c they (the pediatrician) don’t deal with teeth.
- I called the pediatric dentist, who I needed to make an appt w/ anyways, for my son Wesley. They said to bring Audrey in when Wes had his appt, and they’d check her out for free (that’s nice), but they wouldn’t say anything over the phone.
- Finally, I asked our family dentist, whom I saw yesterday afternoon for some dental work (ugh). She said it was NO problem at all, and even told me how her little sister cut all her canines first, and then would make a schnuffy face/sound baring all her teeth, and everyone called her Vampire Baby. :lol: This sister grew up to have perfectly normal adult teeth.
So, after using five resources, mystery solved. It’s uncommon, but doesn’t speak of any deeper tooth problem. Good.
Fix your date and then erase this. ;O)
Whoops! Thanks for the catch.
I only delete under extreme circumstances.
Ah, this helped me out a little. I’m in a similar situation…I have a five month old son who has been teething for about two months now. The other day I noticed that his side tooth (which I think is one of his canines) was cutting through. I was a bit concerned since everyone says that it is usually the bottom two incisors that show first. Thanks for the info…it helped to ease my mind a bit!
Shawna ~ I’m glad to help. BTW, my daughter had her 6 month checkup yesterday, and the pediatrician said, “Well, she’s just expressing her individuality.” He was sort of joking, but what he meant was that every baby develops differently, and there’s really no cause for alarm. I understand your concern, though, since I was going through the same thing a week ago!
(Also, Audrey’s now cut the canine on the other side, too. So she now has one bottom incisor and the top two canines.
)
Thanks for the info. I found your site while searching for info on the same thing. My 4th has been crazy fussy and I thought it was because of the bottom central incisor she’s cutting. When she cried this morning, she threw her head back and I saw that she is also cutting both of her top lateral incisors before the middle ones! I knew that some kids had teeth out of order but didn’t know if it mattered in the long run. So, thanks for the info…
I laughed that I found a “random” blog and you are also a homeschooler, using Sonlight, who blared worship music when necessary, etc. I felt like I was reading about myself! LOL Except, I am the only Christian (born again in college) from a very liberal family whereas you seemed to live more of the straight and narrow throughout your life, I had more of a Damascus Road conversion.
Blessings,
Rene
Thanks for posting, Rene!!!
Do you ever go onto the Sonlight forums? I used to a lot… until my dearest friend was involved in an argument/attack and I think the SL staff handled it *very* poorly. Left a bad taste in my mouth.
I so love when I find people online with whom I share a lot in common.
And I’m glad my post was a help to you with your little girl.
First of all, I really enjoy your blog! It is very entertaining and informational into your everyday “goings-on”! I found your site after I was searching for teething out-of-order and I must say you’ve eased my mind with this entry. Thanx a bunch!
Glad you enjoy the blog, Ryan, and glad I could help. Good luck w/ your wee boy.
Thanks for this post, I was googling for out of order teeth too, as my baby boy who is just five months old has his two bottom teeth and I’ve now found a tooth on the bottom mid way up emerging. I can’t even tell what tooth it is at this stage. I was a little worried that maybe something weird was happening with him, and finding your info helped.
Thanks for the post. My son is a slow teether. He’s one and only had his two bottom teeth. He was very needy this morning so I looked where he should be teething and there was nothing…then I noticed he’s getting his left canine!! Right in time for Christmas too (ugh). The last tooth was a terrible experience!! AHHHH. I was thinking his canines were looking buldgie lately. Oh well. My mom is a hygenist so she’ll find this funny!!
Thanks for posting this! I found you while looking to see if my son was weird. He is almost 9 months old, has his two bottom teeth and has cut his two upper canines – something he shouldn’t be doing until 16-22 months of age! Glad to hear he isn’t the only one!
Princess, healthnag & Beth ~ Glad to help!
It turns out that my baby’s “canines” were actually her lateral incisors (the outside front teeth, not the middle two). They’re just HUGE HUGE. I don’t know where her canines will fit in when they do come in. Eek. She inherited huge teeth and huge feet from me.
i cant believe i actually found something on this! i am not actually sure if my son is cutting a tooth or not but he is normally very calm and independant but he has been crazy fussy today and yesterday and sticking his whole fist and anything he can find into his mouth.also he went from being a pretty good sleeper to being a horrible one so i checked his gums and was alarmed to see a swollen red bump where his lateral bottom incisor should be but i remember everyone lways saying nope it will def. be in the middle so i decided to research. do u think this red swollen bump is a tooth or would i know?
Yay~~ So glad to see Im not paranoid or anything like that! I was searching like crazy for something. My little one, who’s almost 5 months old, has been having all the characteristic teething stuff. Well, I assumed that she was cutting her lower centrals and swore I could see a little white there. Around 2 or 3 everyday she goes into her screaming for about an hour or hour and a half. Well, today at exactly 3 she awakes from her nap whimpering and is soon in a full blown screaming session. I put the orajel on the bottom front of her gums with no relief. So i grab some ice and put it in a washcloth which she likes to chew on sometimes, she didn’t want this. Well, there I am with my poor baby screaming with her mouth wide open. I get a good look then, and I see that she has a white bump on either side of her mouth where her lower canines may be. So then I start searching and finally found this- thanks a lot!! My poor baby HAD to be different!!
Oh yeah, I forgot to finish my comment- I was worried I would do all that typing and it would not get posted. Okay, so anyway when I see the two white bumps I try some orajel there and a few minutes later she was calm and I was able to rock her back to sleep for the rest of her nap. Im so glad that I may be able to comfort her better. Okay that’s all for now!!
very helpful –
i have the strangest little teether ever -
first two bottom teeth came it at almost 15 months!
then nothing until just recently at 18 months she’s getting an upper lateral incisor and a molar at the same time – but no sign of front teeth –
babies will be babies i guess!
thanks for putting me at ease -
I realized my son isn’t getting his canines but his lateral incisors. He has his left one and now cut the front tooth beside it and I can see his right lateral starting to buldge….what a wacko….most babies get their bottom laterals before the tops. These teeth have been so easy to deal with. His 2nd central incisor on the bottom had him with a fever of 104…he was very sad then. These ones have been a breeze….I’m just forever curious about which tooth will be next now. I enjoy having a baby that’s out of the norm. Perhaps he’ll have purple hair in highscool like I did!
I have the same thing going on that Jessica does. My 5 month old son has been teething for a while and has gotton crazy lately about putting everything in his mouth and this morning I found a hard bump part way back on the bottom on one side but not the other and he bites down on everything on that side. I can not see a tooth yet but was wondering if you all think it is a tooth? I mean what else would make a hard bump under the gums?
I found you through Google, Karen Joy! How funny! Moe has his bottom central incisors now and his top left central incisor and now his left lateral incisor coming through. It looks like I’m in good company here, though. I won’t worry about it.
Hi, Jessica!!! I’d like to see a pic of unbalanced Moe! Hehehe! After I was done being worried about Audrey’s teeth, I started wishing that we could see her top teeth better in photos, since she had a dracula effect going on, but we never got any really good shots.
Wow — imagine me finding this random blog in my search! I have a 14-month old who cut her first bottom two teeth when she was about 8 months. In the past month, she has been acting like she was teething, but nothing ever appeared. Then, tonight, she threw her head back to laugh and I notice three completely random teeth in the very back of her mouth. No wonder she’s been screaming at me! Then I read some more of your comments and realized that we have a lot in common — I’m a Christian mom who plans on homeschooling. I’m glad I found you for more than one reason now! Thanks!
How crazy is it that we all are searching for info on teething out of order and there really isn’t anything from a “medical expert”? You’d think that some medical or dental site would have something about this! I was trying to get a picture of an infants mouth while teething. I am seeing a couple of red bumps in my 6 month old Charlotte’s mouth (she already has the lower middle two) and it just seemed so strange that she would be cutting her canine before her insisors. But you all have shown that it just isn’t so. Thanks!~ and good luck mommies and babies.
I’m really pleased I found this site. My ten-month-old has been quite miserable in the last month which I put down to teeth, except he still doesn’t have any!! I’ve been feeling his lower gums, thinking any day now the two central teeth would appear but they haven’t. However today I had a good feel around his entire mouth and discovered that he has in fact cut a tooth afterall – the top lateral incisor (I think that’s what it’s called). I hadn’t heard of teeth cutting out of order before, especially top ones before bottom teeth, so I began to panic. This site has been very reassuring so thank you for that! Does anyone know if it can lead to minor problems with baby teeth such as overcrowding, thus causing teeth to cross?
I agree with all – thanks for the post. My 10-mo old has the bottom center teeth and has been miserable lately. He just cut his bottom left lateral incisor and I was beginning to think he would never get any top teeth. Now, I’m going to check the sides on top as he seemed to be favoring there instead of in front. Good to know “out of order” is just unique!
Thanks for everyone’s blog. It helped me ease my mind about my 6 1/2 mo. old that has her two middle bottom teeth, but now is cutting her upper “eye” teeth at the same time. Glad to know that I’m not the only parent with a child who is getting teeth “out of order.” I just hope she doesn’t look goofy when she smiles