Talk:Deciduous teeth

But what are they made of?
Are they less resilient than permanent teeth? Shouldn't that be mentioned, if not just in passing? (I have no knowledge on the subject; this was merely the question I wanted answered when I opened this page.) 82.235.98.252 (talk) 09:05, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
 * They are made of the same stuff that permanent teeth are made of. Just letting you know. - Dozenist talk  12:20, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Human centric
This article seems exclusively concerned with humans beyond a brief mention in the first sentence. Don't many kinds of mammals have deciduous teeth? Ace of Sevens 11:46, 30 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I was looking for information on other mammals as well (not that I am saying not to include non-mammals, but that was what I was looking for). I know some mammals are born with teeth, I was just wondering if it is more common to be born with or without teeth.
 * Mystic eye 03:15, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I have the same problem with this article, especially since other mammals are mentioned in the intro and then the subject silently shifts to human teeth. Thayvian (talk) 04:52, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Factual inaccuracies
Concerning the last paragraph...

I think baby bottle tooth decay can occur with regular milk, not just "sweetened milk"; much of the info is also factually suspect; for example, "milk and water are the only liquids which should be put in a baby bottle" (this is rather circumstance-dependent and very opinion-like) -- this paragraph needs attention from an expert on the subject

Be Careful Not to Generalize
The article claims that "By age twelve there are only permanent teeth remaining." but this isn't always so, and is only one of many potential timelines. I prefer the way it is explained in the article for Permanent Teeth; "The last permanent tooth usually arrives at around 18 years of age, but this can vary greatly between individuals."

FYI: I'm 22 and still have a couple deciduous teeth rattling around!

I agree with the guy above... I'm 14 years old and I still have 15 deciduos teeth. Is that a bad thing? 70.107.135.11 03:50, 6 January 2007 (UTC)daRoberto


 * But be careful not to over-emphasize the variations in time. Ask any dentist, and they would tell you the ages associated with the eruption of any tooth. Sure, times vary among individuals, but the ages listed are very commonplace.  The first permanent molars are even known as "6-year molars" because they are expected to be erupting into the mouth at age 6. So bottom line, actual times vary among people, but if the time is far off from that which is expected then something may be wrong. - Dozenist  talk  15:58, 6 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Also I wanted to add that I have 1 baby tooth left, there is no adult tooth to replace it. Also my wisdom tooth came in last month.  I'm 25, that is considered the far end of normal.  AND I know for a fact that some infants are born with teeth, these are generally a whole other set.  They fall out, then milk teeth, then deciduous teeth.
 * Mystic eye 03:15, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Pulling 'em
My grandkids are busy getting these out of thier mouths and one has already tried the string tied to the doorknob. Maybe something can be added about how kids pull these out. -Pahuskahey 10:47, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know what hormones initiate this process?
Does anyone know what hormones initiate this process or if there are already horomones treatment that help grow teeth?

Since the body communciates via hormones, it is possible to "trick" the body with those hormones that initiate the growth of permanent teeth so that adults could grow a new set of teeth too.

I am only suggesting this because there are hormones treatments that could increase eggs release in women, increase muscle size in men, and even change the sexs, so why not grow a new set of teeth?

This is not a moral issue. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wxyrty (talk • contribs) 15:44, 28 February 2007 (UTC).
 * You can see tooth development for an article on general tooth development. There has not been a way found to grow a new set of teeth yet.  There seems to be a complicated process of the right environmental factors and particular types of cells ready to form a new tooth. Research is underway to see if a tooth can be "grown" later in life to replace missing teeth. - Dozenist  talk  00:59, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

interlanguage links
Where in Wikipedia does one go to discuss interlanguage linking? The Dutch page Wisselgebit (change-bit, I'm guessing there is no English word but it's the time when you have a combination of baby and adult teeth) goes to English page "teething" which is something different (the appearance of first teeth, not change-teeth). There is a German language page, Milchgebiss, which links to this English page (deciduous teeth). Obviously these pages don't match. Where to go to discuss this?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.166.94.1 (talk) 11:49, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

French Wikipedia
fr:Dent temporaire seems to have a lot of info which this article doesn't. AnonMoos (talk) 18:02, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Milk teeth
The text says: "Similarly, in some Latin America countries they are called Milk Teeth". Actually it seems to be the case also in much wider range of European languages, other than Spanish (they are called milk teeth in at least German, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Swedish):

Deutch: milchgebiss (milch is milk, gebiss seems to be "the set of teeth").

Français: article seems to indicate that with humans, one speaks of "dent de lait" or "dent lactéale", containing the idea of milk teeth.

Magyar: tejfog (tej seems to xref to milk, fog seems to xref to tooth).

Suomi: maitohammas (maito is milk, hammas is tooth).

Svenska: mjölktänder (mjölk is milk, tänder is teeth).

TWx4eABO5y (talk) 20:28, 28 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Very good point. This section seems very USA-centric. Why is it "a curious fact" that Asian languages refer to them as 'fall teeth', surely this is not much more curious than calling them 'deciduous teeth'? At the moment this read as "we call them such-and-such, but curiously other parts of the world use other words". In the UK they are commonly called Milk Teeth (does this count as European?). Recommend re-wording of this section. Perhaps all the alternative names could be listed together, then regional trends explained? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.200.23.252 (talk) 12:40, 16 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Now the article is better, but I'm not convinced with the explanation, or etymology given ("as they exist when the child is still mainly drinking milk"). Kids do drink milk, sure, but so do older people and adults. I would say that the idea, or notion, behind "milk teeth" is something like they are softer than the "iron teeth" that replace them when the kid grows older. Let's leave all this etymology away altogether, since there's no sources to rely on. TWx4eABO5y (talk) 23:24, 22 January 2011 (UTC)


 * In many cultures, adults do not very commonly drink milk (lactose intolerance). AnonMoos (talk) 11:17, 10 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Are you dumb? It's obvious that the term refers to human breast milk. Even in China, it's milk teeth. --88.130.54.78 (talk) 23:06, 15 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Your comments would seem to serve better as a reply to TWx4eABO5y than to me... AnonMoos (talk) 17:59, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

Cavity in Baby Teeth
If there is a cavity in a baby tooth, would it have a major effect on the permanent tooth that is right above it? If it does, how bad does the cavity have to be and how is the permanent tooth affected? 2604:3D08:467E:AFE0:A8:AFE6:6E5A:97D3 (talk) 22:32, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

98.85.245.136 (talk) 17:48, 12 August 2011 (UTC)My wife grew up in Vietnam and she has never heard of asking for a rat's teeth when throwing out the baby teeth as the article states.

Development of permanent teeth in child skull
Hi, I stumbled this interesting photograph. All the inchoate permanent teeth are visible but haven't broken through yet. Interesting how they're crammed in all those nooks at odd angles:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfschafer/3990631783/in/photostream/

(Brandon Arnold (talk) 03:26, 10 October 2011 (UTC))

tannfé ('tooth-money')
"In medieval Scandinavia there was a tradition, surviving to the present day in Iceland, of tannfé ('tooth-money'), a gift to a child when it cuts its first tooth" It has survived to the present day in more countries than Iceland. It is common in all of Scandinavia and presumably in many parts of Europe. Se http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooth_fairy and its various translations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.243.131.125 (talk) 11:32, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

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Quick Edit Request
Primary teeth redirects to deciduous teeth. But the phrase primary teeth is missing in the alias list of deciduous teeth, given in the first line of the article. - Just put primary teeth in the first line if it is correct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.111.10.145 (talk) 06:52, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I assume you're talking about the list of redirected terms at the top, before the actual text of the article begins. That list only includes terms that could be confused with other things. It should not list every term that redirects to this article. - dcljr (talk) 23:53, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

Prehistoric Britain

 * (This section heading was provided by a different user.)

In the last paragraph, the article states "In Prehistoric Britain, lost teeth were commonly burnt to destroy them. This was partly for religious reasons connected with the Last Judgement and partly for fear of what might happen if an animal got them.[clarification needed] A rhyme might be said as a blessing:[16]" Britain's Christianization took place well into recorded British history. If there's a neolithic, Bronze Age, or Iron Age practice involving exfoliated deciduous teeth, there's no place it would have been recorded. There might be archaeological evidence for this, but there would be no inference of the purpose of the ritual as its meaning would have been lost without some record. The Romans might have written about practices in Roman-occupied Britain, but this was before Christianity found a foothold on the island. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8803:4004:100:ada1:cd2:f517:ade3 (talk) 1 February 2023 (UTC)