I ran upstairs and grabbed as many books as I could while I still had the use of both my arms and both my eyeballs. Then, I started reading up on everything I could find about teeth. After chewing through the information (get it?) I felt really relieved because I’d finally discovered the difference between deciduous and mature teeth.

You see, the first set of teeth you get are your deciduous or primary teeth. These are also known as your baby teeth because you get them when you’re just a baby. Duh! But believe it or not, these teeth actually start to grow even before you’re born. They’re just resting in your gums and they haven’t come out into your mouth yet.

When a baby is around six months, their teeth start to cut through the flesh of their gums. (So, I guess the first thing you actually chew is your own gums! Yuck!) The feeling of the teeth cutting through the gums is painful for the baby, so they cry. A lot. (What a bunch of babies!)

Eventually, about 20 baby teeth grow in. (Which equals a lot of crying.) These are our first set of teeth. If you’ve ever watched a baby, you know that they use their teeth for chewing the tires of their stroller, their father’s slippers, and occasionally even some Cheerios. They also use their tiny, sharp teeth to bite down on anything they can reach. So move your fingers out of their way!

Over time and a lot of chewing, the baby teeth begin to wear down. The reason teeth stay in our mouths is because they are held in place by long smooth roots that keep them in our jaws. These roots are stuck inside your jaw where you can’t see them, just like you can’t see the roots of a tree. (At least not before the tree cracks through the sidewalk!) Front teeth usually have only one root, but back teeth can have as many as three roots. When the time is right, special cells begin to eat away at the roots of the teeth. The teeth start getting shaky and eventually fall out.

By the time a kid is six, their baby teeth usually start falling out. The last one generally falls out by about 12 years of age. I know what you’re thinking: Without teeth, how will I chew gum in class or chomp carrots or gnaw through a plastic wrapper? Will I need dentures before my bar mitzvah? Let me reassure you, no, you will not. Because luckily for you, after your baby teeth fall out, your mature or grown-up teeth grow in. And those are the teeth you keep for the rest of your life. (Hopefully!)

When the baby tooth falls out, it makes a space so the adult tooth can grow into the gap where the baby tooth used to be. At first, kids can look pretty funny with their new teeth. In fact, they kind of look like buck-toothed bunny rabbits. That’s because adult teeth are slightly yellower, much bigger, and have bumps and grooves at the bottom. They’re also a lot stronger than baby teeth with much longer roots. That’s to make sure they stay in a lot longer!

Once I’d learned all this, I felt very relieved. I went back to the supper table and chowed down my meatballs and spaghetti. I also took the opportunity to call Mimi a Toothless Wonder and told her that as long as she has baby teeth she’s still a baby. That got her crying and yelling (just like she used to when she was teething!) and yanking on my arm while screaming “Shthop it! I mean it, shthop it!” Hysterical, right?

So basically, what I discovered after all my research is that teeth falling out is just a normal part of growing up. As an added bonus, it helps you do really cool tricks with spaghetti. And the best news of all is that since you don’t have deciduous arms — or eyeballs — I guess I can be reassured that the pair I’m using now won’t fall out. Whether my sister ends up yanking them off is another story!

Here are some fascinating facts about teeth:

The front teeth of rats keep growing so they can use them to gnaw at food without wearing them down. Alligators can grow new teeth whenever they need them. Sharks can too!

Teeth are totally unique! Just like fingerprints, no two people have the same set of teeth.

In medieval Germany, they thought they could cure toothaches by kissing a donkey!

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Jr., Issue 914)