Why do I need to get my child’s baby teeth filled? Isn’t he or she just going to lose them?
If your child develops a cavity in a baby tooth the decay will slowly (and sometimes rapidly) get bigger and deeper. Tooth decay can cause a toothache or even an abscessed tooth if the tooth is not restored. If the tooth is really close to falling out, we have the option of just leaving it alone. If it looks like it may be a while until it would normally fall out, we need to do something. Remember baby teeth are there for a reason. They give the child something to chew with and (importantly) they often save space for the permanent teeth. Why don’t you just pull it? Well, sometimes that is the best option, but if a back baby tooth is lost too early, without proper treatment, additional crowding problems could occur. These problems are often more difficult and extensive to correct. So you usually will need additional work like a space maintainer. That’s one reason why it’s often easier to fix a baby tooth than just remove it.
Here is a chart of approximate ages of erupting and shedding of teeth:
