Spriteshadow writes:
"My daughter was born 12 weeks premature, and as a side effect has delayed growth issues. Her cognitive development has moved ahead at a normal pace, but after many tests it appears that her bone growth processes didn't "kick in" normally, and as a consequence she is running about 1.5 years behind. The growth specialist are going to monitor her, but it appears that from now until she passes puberty we will be comparing her to a corrected chart approximately 18 month younger than her chronological age.Should we also be comparing her dental growth to a child 18 months younger? She lost a front tooth in an accident at 18 months old (huh, now that's a coincidence, that's when her growth slowed) and we're wondering when we can anticipate needing to start visiting the dentist to ensure the replacement has room to grow in?"
Visit the Dentistry Forum if you have experienced something similar with your child, or have professional advice to offer this forum member.
In my experience, dental eruption generally follows the physiologic age. A delay in growth would correspond to a delay in eruption.
Yet I’ve also seen glaring exceptions, where the teeth came in quite early for someone who appeared delayed in physiologic growth, or vice versa. Typically in those cases there was a family trait of getting teeth very early or very late.
Joe
yes, it’s sometimes happen with premature baby. it’s often noticed the eruption (deciduous & permanent) process are not common. in these cases dental science has no specific record for right answer! The advance science has the answer and solution which sometimes hackle the natural and prevailed dentition.
This is a unique story! Many Hilton Head dentists are aware of dental issues concerning persons who were born premature. I have read about this issue in a magazine. Parents are always advised to see the dentists for the best remedy.
It is probably good to start your child with a visit to your dentist (or even pedodontist) sooner, rather than later. It is definitely a situation where proper monitoring and even early referral to an orthodontist for monitoring and recall will help guide the child’s future dental health. Sometimes early interception and properly guided care is much easier for the child (and parents), then to wait until it becomes a glaring problem that may involve more complicated (and possibly more expensive) treatment.
A article by Helen Harrison at http://www.narof.org/docs/followup.htm indicate that “children who were age 4 or older, many of whom had been dismissed as from infant follow-up as “normal” or as having only minor problems”. As per my experience as a parents I will recommend to see dentist regularly and taking extra care for oral hygiene.