What Next After The First Baby Tooth Came Out?

OK, we have one issue to deal with before we can move on to all those great traditions surrounding the loss of baby teeth, throughout the world. It's this — should you pull loose tooth out, or leave them to complete the process by themselves?

One should ideally wait for a loose milk tooth to come out by itself, because pulling teeth out can be quite a scary experience for the child, especially if the tooth was not yet extremely loose. If you engage in old practices like pulling bits of string around the tooth and slamming the door to get it to come out, your child may be very scared, and it will hurt if you pull the tooth before it is truly ready. There will also be a substantial amount of blood in that case.

When, however, the tooth is so loose that it is merely hanging on by its nerve, you may want to help nature out a little. You can encourage your child to pull her own tooth out, or do it for her instead if she agrees. This prevents teeth getting swallowed or lost in bits of food, which would be a shame if you are hoping to preserve these teeth as a keepsake.

What can you do to celebrate the loss of baby teeth? You know all about the tooth fairy that leaves money under the child's pillow in exchange for the tooth, but you may be interested to hear in some other traditions from throughout the globe:

• In some Asian countries including Korea and Vietnam, children throw their lower teeth onto the roof while making teeth from the upper jaw disappear in the ground. They may also loudly recite a request that their new tooth will be like a mouse's tooth, because mouse teeth never stop growing and thus can't wear out.

• In some Islamic traditions, children throw their old tooth up at Allah and ask for it to be replaced. This tradition has been going on for centuries now.

• In Britain, they used to burn baby tooth and recite a blessing over them.

• In some countries, the “tooth fairy” is a little mouse.

In my family, we don't engage in these traditions and instead have a lovely little box in which we keep baby teeth. We also take the kid in question on a trip to the dentist, for a check-up and some great advice on how to keep caring for those lovely new adult teeth, so they will last a lifetime.

I'd like to use this opportunity to say that a “lecture” on dental care doesn't mean that kids and their parents should not look after their baby teeth. Decayed baby teeth can cause a lot of problems. Severely decayed teeth can also affect the adult tooth, which will already have formed underneath the gum. And lost baby teeth can cause problems with the location of the new adult tooth, which in turn may cause the need for braces.  

Enjoy this time. While your child's first baby tooth may come out at age six or seven, the last one may not be shed until age 12 or even 13 — by which time your child probably won't want your help and will have been rendered brave by previous experience. When your child loses her first baby tooth, you can celebrate this milestone on the way to being grown-up in a festive atmosphere, and cherish the memories.