Guides
Baby teeth cavities: do they really need treatment if they'll fall out anyway?
It is one of the most reasonable questions a parent can ask, and we hear it often. If the tooth is temporary, why treat it? The short answer is that a baby tooth is temporary the way a school year is temporary. It ends, but a lot depends on how it goes.
They are here longer than you think
The first baby teeth arrive around six months. The last of them are usually still in place at eleven or twelve. A cavity in a two-year-old is not a problem that sorts itself out in a few months, it is a problem your child lives with through most of primary school.
What they are doing while they are here
A baby tooth is not just a placeholder. It is doing work.
- Chewing, which is how your child gets comfortably through a meal.
- Speech, because sounds are shaped against the teeth.
- Holding space for the adult tooth growing underneath. Lose one early and the neighbouring teeth drift into the gap, so the adult tooth arrives to find its place taken.
What an untreated cavity actually does
Decay does not stay still. It works inwards, and when it reaches the nerve it hurts, often at night, often before a child can explain what is wrong. Infection can follow, and an infection sitting above a developing adult tooth is not something to wait out.
The everyday version is quieter and far more common: a child who chews on one side, avoids cold things, sleeps badly, or is out of sorts at school for a reason nobody has connected to a tooth.
The part that is genuinely good news
Caught early, this is small. A chalky white patch at the gumline is decay that has not broken through yet, and at that stage the answer is often fluoride, one change at the sink, and keeping an eye on it. No drill, no fuss.
Caught late, the same tooth needs considerably more. The difference between the two is usually one checkup.
When to call us
If you can see a white, brown or black mark on a tooth, if your child says a tooth hurts, or if they have started eating differently, book a look. Nothing is lost by finding out it was nothing.