Kids lose all 20 of their baby teeth, starting with the two bottom front teeth around age 6 and finishing with the second molars around age 12. The process follows a predictable pattern that mirrors the order the teeth first came in, so the earliest teeth to appear are the earliest to go.
The 20 Teeth Every Child Loses
A child’s mouth contains 20 primary (baby) teeth: 10 on top and 10 on the bottom. In each jaw, there are two central incisors (the front teeth), two lateral incisors (next to the front teeth), two canines (the pointed teeth), and four molars (two on each side in the back). That’s the full set. There are no baby premolars or wisdom teeth.
Every single one of these 20 teeth will eventually fall out and be replaced by a permanent tooth. But your child will also gain 12 additional teeth that never had baby versions: 8 premolars and 4 wisdom teeth. That’s how the count jumps from 20 baby teeth to a full adult set of 32.
The Order They Fall Out
Baby teeth typically fall out in the same sequence they arrived. Here’s the general timeline:
- Lower central incisors (bottom front teeth): around age 6 to 7
- Upper central incisors (top front teeth): around age 7 to 8
- Lateral incisors (the teeth flanking the front ones): around age 7 to 9
- First molars: around age 9 to 11
- Canines: around age 9 to 12
- Second molars (the farthest back baby teeth): around age 10 to 13
Most children lose their first tooth close to their sixth birthday, and the process wraps up by about age 12 or 13. There’s a natural lull in the middle. Many kids lose their front eight teeth between ages 6 and 9, then wait a year or more before the canines and molars start loosening.
What Happens Inside the Gum
A baby tooth doesn’t just pop out on its own. Underneath it, the developing permanent tooth triggers a process called root resorption. Specialized cells in the gum tissue slowly break down the root of the baby tooth, dissolving it from the bottom up. As the root gets shorter and shorter, the tooth loses its anchor and begins to wobble. By the time your child can wiggle it with their tongue, most of the root is already gone.
This is why baby teeth that fall out naturally look hollow at the bottom. The root wasn’t snapped off; it was gradually absorbed by the body to clear a path for the adult tooth waiting beneath it.
Molars That Don’t Replace Anything
One detail that catches many parents off guard: the first permanent molars don’t push out any baby teeth. These four large teeth (often called “six-year molars”) erupt behind the last baby molars, in empty space at the back of the jaw. Because no baby tooth falls out to make room, kids and parents sometimes don’t notice them arriving at all.
The same is true for the second permanent molars, which show up around age 12 to 13 behind the six-year molars, and eventually the wisdom teeth between ages 17 and 21. None of these back molars replace a baby tooth. The baby molars that do fall out are replaced by premolars, a type of tooth that only exists in the adult set.
When Teeth Come Out Too Early
Sometimes a baby tooth is lost ahead of schedule because of decay, injury, or infection. This matters because baby teeth act as placeholders, keeping the surrounding teeth from drifting into the empty space. If a baby molar is lost too early, especially once the permanent first molars and lateral incisors have started coming in, the neighboring teeth can shift and crowd the spot where the adult tooth needs to erupt.
In these cases, a dentist may place a small device called a space maintainer to hold the gap open until the permanent tooth is ready. If a baby molar is lost very early, before the permanent molars have erupted, space loss is less of a concern and a maintainer may not be needed.
When Teeth Come Out Late
The timeline above is an average, and healthy variation is common. Some children don’t lose their first tooth until age 7 or even 8. Girls tend to lose teeth slightly earlier than boys. If your child’s teeth came in later than average as a baby, they’ll likely fall out later too.
Certain factors can shift the timeline more significantly. Children born prematurely, particularly those born before 30 weeks or with very low birth weight, often experience delayed tooth eruption in infancy. Nutrition during the newborn period and the severity of early illness also play a role. These delays in the baby teeth arriving can push back the entire schedule, including when those teeth eventually loosen and fall out. In rare cases, conditions that affect bone metabolism or hormonal development can delay the process further, but for most kids, being a year or so off the typical timeline is perfectly normal.
What the Permanent Teeth Timeline Looks Like
As baby teeth leave, adult teeth fill in. The full permanent eruption schedule looks like this:
- Central incisors: lower at 6 to 7, upper at 7 to 8
- Lateral incisors: lower at 7 to 8, upper at 8 to 9
- Canines: lower at 9 to 10, upper at 11 to 12
- First premolars: 10 to 12
- Second premolars: 10 to 12
- First molars: 6 to 7 (no baby tooth lost)
- Second molars: 11 to 13 (no baby tooth lost)
- Wisdom teeth: 17 to 21 (no baby tooth lost)
By age 13, most children have all 28 of their non-wisdom permanent teeth in place. The transition from a full set of baby teeth to a full set of adult teeth takes roughly six to seven years, with the most visually dramatic changes happening between ages 6 and 9, when the front teeth swap out and kids sport that classic gap-toothed grin.