Eldest, 11, has a VERY loose permanent tooth. I'm used to a little wiggle as baby teeth are lost and new teeth emerge. That whole 'making room' thing. But, this is more than that. He's not taken any blows to the face or anything. It's just loose.

We told him not to mess with it..he's a wiggler ;)

He assured me it was a permanent tooth. As I asked repeatedly, assuring myself :p Indeed, it is a tooth he has lost before, over a year ago, he tells me. It's..um, I forget which teeth are what..anywho..there's the front teeth, the teeth on either side and then there's the loose one..are those the eye teeth? Anyway, yeah, one of that second pair off the two fronts. (follow?)

I'm not sure he has lost that molar immediately behind it. That's what I was originally thinking..that it was working loose and that affected this tooth. But I don't think it was loose at all. I will double check. I do see that this loose tooth is fairly new emerging. It's mate on the opposite site is even newer.

Ok, he just told me he has lost that molar before as well. So we're talking all permanent teeth here and this one is super loose.

As I said, we told him to leave it alone and we'd keep an eye on it. Thinking it would tighten back up. But in just a day it has gotten worse.

We planned to watch a few days and if no improvement we'd take him to the dentist. But..given this further loosening..should we get him in asap? What might be done for it? If anything. What do you think is causing this?

The tooth otherwise looks perfectly healthy. It's just loose as a baby tooth would be.

Are you absolutely sure he has lost it before?
My 12 yo lost a tooth recently that I thought was a permamnent tooth, but it was a baby tooth and the new one came in. Look around his loose tooth to see if any other teeth are poking it out.
If he does happen to lose it, it might not be too big a deal, the other ones will probably fill in the space. I know kids around here have teeth pulled all the time to make room for everthing and to correct crowding.
Praying it's "no big deal" and also praying it's "no big expense" at the dentist if you have to go.

Well, it just fell out.

Yeah, I wasn't fretting it, just trying to figure out what was going on.
He is certain he lost it before, a year to a year and a half ago. Makes sense to me. He has lost them all in pairs..back to back..you know, those bottom two teeth generally go first, one right after the other...well, he has continued that 'pair' pattern all the way through. And this one's 'pair' is still newly emerging.

This may very well be a case of 'making room'. That one wasn't needed so out it went. *shrug* I guess we'll find out. I didn't notice another tooth coming in, but, lighting isn't at its best right now ;) I'll check again in the morning with better lighting and when things aren't so fresh.

See, I told ya it was super loose LOL He went upstairs to bed...they hauled blankets to another room so they could all sleep in there..and he comes out 'uh, mom, my tooth fell out...I wasn't doing ANYthing' hehe

I believe that's perfectly normal. The 'eye' or 'canine' (cuspid) teeth come in AFTER the molar, which is closer to the back of the mouth. Here's a chart
http://adam.about.com/encyclopedia/Development-of-permanent-teeth.htm

It says 11-12 years... seems he's right on track. Personally, I'd chalk it up to bad memory and skip the dentist unless it looks really problematic.

My ex-fiance from years ago...he had THREE of every tooth....!! He would lose every tooth twice! Some of them even into HS!! Weird!

Yeah I've heard of the third tooth...I wondered about that.

Rach, I keep coming back to 'bad memory' but like I said, the one on the other side is newly emerged, a bit 'behind' the one he lost. And those are the teeth that were out nearly as long as the front tooth.

Oh well. No worries, just curious.

Does the tooth he lost have a really long root, Tara? If it's the eye tooth and it's permanent, they're the longest tooth in the mouth with really long roots. I think the permanent roots even grow into the jaw bone. I do know for sure they're the stabilizer teeth because they're the strongest and their roots are the longest. I read that ortho's usually won't even put braces on a kid without permanent eye teeth because the permanent eyes are the anchor teeth that keep the others in alignment. Interesting stuff. :-D

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Joy [welcomewave]

Does the tooth he lost have a really long root, Tara? If it's the eye tooth and it's permanent, they're the longest tooth in the mouth with really long roots. I think the permanent roots even grow into the jaw bone. I do know for sure they're the stabilizer teeth because they're the strongest and their roots are the longest. I read that ortho's usually won't even put braces on a kid without permanent eye teeth because the permanent eyes are the anchor teeth that keep the others in alignment. Interesting stuff. :-D

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Joy [welcomewave]

Yup, eye teeth are the anchor teeth. That is why the dentist didn't worry about Liam having his four front teeth pulled in Feb. No spacer put in or anything, even though they are still baby teeth. I guess eye teeth are anchors whether they are baby ones or not.

No root noticed at all. He just handed me a completely perfect looking empty tooth. Like any other lost tooth.

Then with no noticable roots, I wouldn't worry. If the tooth wasn't meant to come out, they would have been there. (And speaking from experience, they are MASSIVE!! lol)