20 baby teeth · 32 permanent teeth
Drag one age slider and watch the whole story unfold: baby teeth breaking through one at a time, permanent teeth pushing them out from below, back molars arriving last, then gums and chewing surfaces changing as the years add up. Click any tooth to learn its name and its schedule.
Drag to rotate · scroll to zoom · click a tooth for details · press a view button to reset the camera
Teeth visible in the mouth
20
20 baby · 0 permanent
Age
2.5 years
Full set of baby teeth
All 20 baby teeth are in place. A quiet stretch before the changeover begins.
Full set of baby teeth. 20 teeth visible: 20 baby teeth and 0 permanent teeth.
The age ranges below are the normal spread across a population. A few months' difference in a child is ordinary and not a sign that anything is wrong.
6 months – 3 years
The two lower front teeth come first, usually somewhere between 6 and 10 months. The rest follow in left-right pairs until all 20 baby teeth are in, around 2.5 to 3 years. The order is not what most people expect: the first baby molar arrives before the canine.
6 – 12 years
Baby teeth and permanent teeth live side by side. The opening act is the first molar, which grows into new space at the back without replacing any tooth at all. The jaw is still growing while the permanent teeth are already adult-sized — this is where crowding usually first shows.
12 – 21 years
Once the last baby tooth is gone, 28 permanent teeth remain. Four wisdom teeth follow between 17 and 21 — if there is room. If there isn't, they stay stuck in the bone, and that is common enough to be unremarkable.
40 years and beyond
Permanent teeth are never replaced, so they have to last decades. Gums slowly recede and expose root, chewing surfaces wear flat, and the colour yellows as enamel thins. With care, teeth can last a lifetime — losing them is not a sentence that comes with age.
These tables use FDI notation (ISO 3950), the standard dentists use worldwide: the first digit gives the quadrant, the second gives the tooth's position counted from the midline.
FDI codes are listed in pairs because the left and right teeth come through together. The order surprises most people: the lower front teeth lead, then the upper front teeth, then the first molars, and only then the canines — the baby canine actually arrives after the molar.
| Order | Tooth | Jaw | FDI code | Comes through | Falls out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Primary central incisorbaby front tooth | Lower | 81 · 71 | 6-10 months | 6-7 years |
| 2 | Primary central incisorbaby front tooth | Upper | 51 · 61 | 8-12 months | 6-7 years |
| 3 | Primary lateral incisorbaby second front tooth | Upper | 52 · 62 | 9-13 months | 7-8 years |
| 4 | Primary lateral incisorbaby second front tooth | Lower | 82 · 72 | 10-16 months | 7-8 years |
| 5 | Primary first molarfirst baby back tooth | Upper | 54 · 64 | 13-19 months | 9-11 years |
| 6 | Primary first molarfirst baby back tooth | Lower | 84 · 74 | 14-18 months | 9-11 years |
| 7 | Primary caninebaby pointed tooth | Upper | 53 · 63 | 16-22 months | 10-12 years |
| 8 | Primary caninebaby pointed tooth | Lower | 83 · 73 | 17-23 months | 9-12 years |
| 9 | Primary second molarsecond baby back tooth | Lower | 85 · 75 | 23 months - 2.5 years | 10-12 years |
| 10 | Primary second molarsecond baby back tooth | Upper | 55 · 65 | 2-3 years | 10-12 years |
Note the two earliest arrivals: the lower central incisor and the first molar, both around age 6. That molar grows into new space behind the baby teeth, with no tooth falling out first — which is exactly why its arrival goes unnoticed.
| Order | Tooth | Jaw | FDI code | Comes through | Roots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First molarfirst big back tooth | Upper | 16 · 26 | 6-7 years | 3 |
| 2 | Central incisorfront tooth | Lower | 41 · 31 | 6-7 years | 1 |
| 3 | First molarfirst big back tooth | Lower | 46 · 36 | 6-7 years | 2 |
| 4 | Central incisorfront tooth | Upper | 11 · 21 | 7-8 years | 1 |
| 5 | Lateral incisorsecond front tooth | Lower | 42 · 32 | 7-8 years | 1 |
| 6 | Lateral incisorsecond front tooth | Upper | 12 · 22 | 8-9 years | 1 |
| 7 | Caninepointed tooth | Lower | 43 · 33 | 9-10 years | 1 |
| 8 | First premolarfirst small back tooth | Upper | 14 · 24 | 10-11 years | 2 |
| 9 | Second premolarsecond small back tooth | Upper | 15 · 25 | 10-12 years | 1 |
| 10 | First premolarfirst small back tooth | Lower | 44 · 34 | 10-12 years | 1 |
| 11 | Caninepointed tooth | Upper | 13 · 23 | 11-12 years | 1 |
| 12 | Second premolarsecond small back tooth | Lower | 45 · 35 | 11-12 years | 1 |
| 13 | Second molarsecond big back tooth | Lower | 47 · 37 | 11-13 years | 2 |
| 14 | Second molarsecond big back tooth | Upper | 17 · 27 | 12-13 years | 3 |
| 15 | Third molarwisdom tooth | Upper | 18 · 28 | 17-21 years | 3 |
| 16 | Third molarwisdom tooth | Lower | 48 · 38 | 17-21 years | 2 |
Telling the two apart matters, because genuinely serious symptoms are sometimes written off as teething, which delays getting them looked at.
What helps: a chilled teether from the fridge — not the freezer — or rubbing the gum with a clean finger. Avoid numbing gels and teething necklaces; both carry real risks for babies.
Teething can nudge the temperature up a little, but it does not cause high fever or diarrhoea. Symptoms like those have another cause that needs finding.
One thing holds across every phase: baby teeth are not disposable placeholders. They guide the permanent teeth into position, and an infection in a baby tooth can disturb the permanent tooth forming underneath it.
Wipe the gums with a damp cloth or gauze once a day. The point is to make having the mouth touched feel normal, not to clean teeth that aren't there yet.
Brush twice a day with a rice-grain smear of fluoride toothpaste. Never let a child fall asleep with a bottle in their mouth — milk pooling around the front teeth all night is the leading cause of decay in baby teeth.
A pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste, and brushing still needs adult supervision until the child can rinse and spit reliably.
The newly arrived first molars have deep grooves on their chewing surface and are the most cavity-prone teeth in the mouth. Ask a dentist about sealants. This is also the best window to assess how the teeth are lining up.
Clean between the teeth every day — a brush only reaches three of the five surfaces of each tooth. Check-ups every six months.
Watch for a dry mouth, often a side effect of medication, which speeds up decay. Root surfaces exposed by receding gums also need particular care when brushing.