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Teething


Overview, Causes, & Risk Factors

Teething is the time in infancy and early childhood when children get their primary teeth.

What is going on in the body?

The age at which a child begins to get teeth can vary. The average age is about 7 months, but some infants' teeth erupt when they are only 3 or 4 months old. Other babies do not begin to get teeth until they are 12 months or even a little older. Getting teeth at any of these ages is normal. Sometimes infants are born with erupted teeth, but these are often abnormal and fall out.

What are the causes and risks of the condition?

Teething is a normal part of a child's growth and development. In general, children follow a certain pattern of tooth eruption. In some children, teeth may erupt late, in a different sequence, or not at all. Following are some of the conditions that affect normal tooth eruption:

  • congenital conditions that affect tooth development, such as abnormal development of the embryo known as ectodermal dysplasia
  • Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality that causes mental retardation and physical abnormalities, such as delayed tooth eruption
  • malformation syndromes, or conditions in which some teeth fail to develop
  • malnutrition
  • progeria, a condition in which the body ages prematurely
  • prolonged illness
  • rickets, a condition of abnormal bone growth caused by a lack of vitamin D in the diet

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