How To Pull a Stubborn Baby Tooth

Losing teeth is a normal part of childhood and it usually is an exciting milestone for them, especially if a classmate has told them about the tooth fairy. Most kids begin losing their baby teeth around the age of 6. Remember that every child is different and they may not lose their baby teeth on a set schedule. Does your child have a stubborn baby tooth to pull?

How To Pull a Stubborn Baby Tooth

If you have any questions or concerns, please schedule a consult with a pediatric dentist. This advice is based on my own experience.

Always Get Your Child to Wiggle Their Teeth Until It is Ready

Before having your child start wiggling their teeth, they need to wash their hands before they stick them in their mouth. Then allow your child to wiggle their own teeth as much as possible until the tooth is loose enough to pull or fall out on its own. Using a tissue or a damp washcloth gently wiggle their tooth back and forth. If it is ready to come out, you can gently twist the tooth and it will pop out.

Your child will likely let you know very quickly if it hurts while trying to pull their stubborn baby tooth. A baby tooth that is pulled too early can affect the way your child’s permanent tooth comes in. It is best to get your eager child to be a bit more patient and wait until his/her tooth is ready to be pulled or possibly fall out on its own.

Pulling a Stubborn Baby Tooth

Does Your Child Have a Stubborn Baby Tooth Too?

My 7-year-old son’s bottom teeth came out easily but the top ones were another story. His top two teeth were loose for several months and the teeth surrounding were moving further away to make room for his permanent teeth. And his baby teeth were slowly moving forward, making his teeth stick out.

One afternoon, we noticed that you could see his permanent tooth coming in already and trying to push his baby tooth out. You could also see a gap between one side of his tooth and his gums while the other side was hanging on. Every few days, we would try to pull his stubborn baby tooth but wasn’t budging.

How To Pull a Stubborn Baby Tooth

Then one evening while I was laying in bed, I decided to try searching for a feasible way to pull his stubborn baby tooth. After several minutes of searching, I came across a video from a dentist that was demonstrating the technique, on his own child who had a loose tooth. The technique is super easy and you can get a stubborn baby tooth pulled quickly. All you need is a piece of dental floss and a glass of warm salt water handy in case there is any bleeding.

Of course, we didn’t have any dental floss in the house and we had to wait until we got some from the store to attempt to pull this stubborn baby tooth. Armed with dental floss, I tear off about a piece and go to work. We followed these exact instructions.

  1. Wash your hands and tear off a piece of dental floss that is approximately 10 to 12 inches.
  2. Use your finger to make a loop so that you can wrap the dental floss around the tooth.
  3. Pull the loop around your finger so that the loop will almost fit around the stubborn baby tooth.
  4. Then I slowly tightened the loop around the tooth and used my finger to push it up near the gum line.
  5. If there is a gap, slide the loop into the gap. You want to make sure that the dental floss is around both sides of the tooth.
  6. Then gently pull the dental floss and the tooth should pop right out if this technique is done correctly.

My son’s tooth popped right out and he was about to let out a scream when he realized it didn’t hurt. He got excited that the tooth fairy was going to pay him a visit. I breathe a sigh of relief because I was worried that we were going to end up at the dentist office for a simple extraction.

With gaps between his permanent tooth and baby tooth, we were worried about food or debris getting caught underneath the tooth. Trapped food can cause decay to permanent teeth. You can now request that the tooth fairy send your child’s tooth off to preserve stem cells.

How To Pull a Stubborn Baby Tooth

Have you ever hard to help your child pull a stubborn baby tooth?

20 thoughts on “How To Pull a Stubborn Baby Tooth”

  1. I really hope this works! My son’s adult tooth has almost fully grown in, but his baby tooth will not come out, so he has 2 teeth, one in front of the other. It is very hard to get a string between them. (His adult tooth is in front of the baby tooth). We haven’t been able to tie a string without it slipping off when we pull. This method sounds too good to be true!

    Reply
    • Jules,

      Just make sure that your wedge the dental floss underneath the baby tooth so that when you pull the floss it catches the root. The floss gently breaks the root and it just pops out. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

      Reply
  2. Lossing Milk tooth is normal, don’t just throw it out keep it for safe in tooth banks because children milk tooth has a good number of stem cells by storing these stem cells it may help your children to protect from unexpected diseases. these Stem cell research is now at the forefront of medical science and has led to advances in the potential to treat or cure a wide variety of illnesses and medical conditions which were previously thought to be “incurable” like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, Spinal cord injuries, Type 1 Diabetes , Muscular dystrophy etc..

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  3. Well that’s interesting! I’ve never thought about pulling a tooth like that. My son is already passed the stage but I will definitely tell my brother about it for his kids.

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  4. My cousin was just talking about her daughter having a stubborn baby tooth. I’ve never had an issue with my kids but it is good to know the best way to get it out.

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  5. That job is never fun. One of our grandkids had one that was just barely hanging on and lets just say it was worse than watching a bad horror show. He didn’t like anything we were doing.

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