birth to about 6 months, your child will have no teeth in their mouth. At this stage, all that is necessary is to clean the gums gently with a soft damp cloth. By 6 months, brushing can begin to prevent the earliest stages of tooth decay.

By age 2, all of your child’s primary teeth should erupt. At this point, it is still the parent’s responsibility to make sure the child’s teeth are brushed at least two times daily. Gradually, the child can learn how to brush their own teeth and eventually take over brushing for themselves, carefully supervised by you, the parent.

Between the age of 7 and 12 years old, your child will lose all their baby teeth to make way for the permanent teeth. Your child will have 32 permanent teeth, including 4 wisdom teeth. The first permanent teeth to appear are usually the molars. Comparatively, there are only 20 primary teeth, so the 12 extra permanent teeth often appear behind the primary teeth.

At this time, your child has entered what dentists call the mixed dentition stage, where the child has both primary and permanent teeth. During this time, your child may mistakenly believe that since the primary teeth are falling out, they are not very important and don’t need to be cared for. During this stage, be sure your child continues to take care of both the permanent teeth and the primary teeth through regular brushing and flossing.

Your child’s permanent teeth will completely appear by age 14, except for the wisdom teeth, which completely erupt by age 17 to 25.