Re: Why do kids' teeth fall out?

Dear Maddy,

You ask a very good question, in fact the question is so good that there is 
no precise answer to it. Instead, there is a theory that seems like a good 
answer, but it has not as yet been proven to the satisfaction of all 
scientists working in the field.

What most researchers believe is that the reason why people have two sets 
of teeth is because in children the mouth is much smaller than in the adult 
and therefore, children need smaller teeth to fit in the smaller jaws. 
However, as children become larger, their muscles also become larger and 
stronger, and those include the muscles that close the jaws. As these 
muscles gain strength they begin to be too powerful for the "baby teeth," 
and special cells, known as odontoclasts begin to remove the tooth from the 
tip of the root working toward the crown. As the baby teeth are being 
removed by these cells, the permanent teeth are being formed to replace the 
teeth being shed.

I hope this helps.

Leslie P. Gartner, Ph.D.
Anatomy, OCBS
Dental School
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland