Extra saliva may cause the child to dribble and a baby tends to chew on anything he or she can hold. The gum may become red and swollen and the cheeks may be warm and red in the area in which the tooth is coming out. We are born with the beginning of our permanent teeth already in place under the gums below the primary teeth. To neglect baby teeth is to invite a lifetime of dental problems, because as a child matures, the baby teeth guide the growth and development of the jawbones and of the permanent teeth. If the primary teeth are lost too early, the jaw may not develop correctly and the permanent teeth may come in crooked or overcrowded.
Adult teeth form very slowly and push up through the gums when they are fully formed.
When baby teeth fall out, the roots are absorbed into the gums. The process of shedding baby teeth begins at about that time too, with the front teeth as the first to go. The upper canines are the last baby teeth to be lost. By the age of eleven to thirteen, twenty-eight permanent teeth are usually in place.