The bottom, middle two look like small feet.

I read that as "smell like small feet."

I wondered how you knew that.

I guess your kids' dentist didn't do regular x-rays and show them to you... The ones in my son's mouth started out invisible, then the next time we saw them they were high up, indistinct, and maybe 3/4 size, now they are lower, full-size, and more distinct, but not yet as opaque as his emerged teeth.

Except the two that are missing. His next x-ray in May will show whether those two teeth were just delayed behind the others, or if they're not going to form at all. The dentist said it happens in about 5% of the population, and his jaw doesn't seem to have any natural crowding, so we'll probably want to get a bridge put in or else his other teeth will spread out and he'll have a gap between every tooth.

Aren't you worried that all those X-rays will fry his brain?

That's cool. I never went to the dentist with them. It was always my wife.

The body is so fascinating. How do the bone cells in that spot in the jaw know to turn into teeth cells? I know it's all encoded in the DNA and stem cells and such, but that doesn't mean my brain can grasp it.

Oh and the frying the brain things was something I always wondered about too. But it turns out since dentists have gone with digital sensors in xrays instead of film, they can use much lower powered xrays than they used to. The sensors are that much more sensitive. So the dental xrays are safer than ever.

That's what my front tooth looked like in second grade when I fell on the playground and knocked my permanent tooth up into my skull.

It's very complicated and scientific and has something to do with the baby jesus, so don't worry about it. You wouldn't understand it.

They have to grow inside the jaws. As far as I know, the only adult size organs a baby is born with are his eyes.

Hang on, what? A baby's eyes grow plenty. Not as impressive a growth compared to how much everything else is going to grow, but they definitely do get bigger.

Myth buster. What are you gonna tell us next, there's no Easter Bunny?

pffft. Three words. Infant boy's balls.

They're insane! (Yeah, I know they get normal and grow with the kid but right when they're born? It's nuts!) :lol:

So....the adult teeth keep growing untl they break the surface. they're full size then. They get some of their "nutrition" by pushing on the roots of the teeth they will replace and absorbing them. that's why baby teeth have no roots when they come out. If the adult teeth are improperly aligned and not directly above the baby teeth, they can end up smaller than average, and the baby teeth with most likely have to be pulled because they do not lose their roots and stay firmly put.

Also, this is why dentsist like to remove impacted wisdom teeth that are apparently doing no harm except for being a bit sideways -if they start to touch the root of the molar in front of it, they will start to absorb and weaken it.

At least this is my understanding of what I've learned from our various dentists and orthodondists over the past 10 years or so......

this really made me say wtf? why!?

http://bitsandpieces.us/wp-content/u...-doubtfire.jpg

Thanks for that explanation monster.

Shekou, you're not a huge Mrs. Doubtfire fan, are you?