Impacted Teeth

If your child has an impacted front tooth or baby tooth, a tooth growing high up in the gum, or other tooth eruption problems, have no fear! These are common problems, and can be fixed.

An impacted tooth is a permanent tooth that can’t erupt (or grow) where it is supposed to. This is usually caused by surrounding teeth that block the emerging permanent tooth, or by a stubborn baby tooth that won’t fall out. Sometimes the erupting permanent tooth doesn’t grow in at all, or it starts growing to the side of surrounding teeth.

The most common teeth that get impacted are wisdom teeth and canines. It’s common for wisdom teeth not to have enough room in the jawline to grow in properly. That’s why they often need to be removed in late adolescence.

However, any type of tooth can get impacted by all kinds of reasons – genetics, the child’s mouth may be small, or the tooth had a mind of its own and felt like growing in a different direction than we would hope.

When permanent (adult) teeth don’t erupt as expected, that can create even more problems down the road (like gum disease, cysts or even bone loss). The earlier an impacted tooth is caught, the easier it is to treat! So the fact that you are aware of the problem and looking for answers, is a great step in the right direction.