Teething timeline calculator
Enter your baby's date of birth and this tool dates each set of milk teeth using the NHS ages, from the first front teeth at around 6 months to the second molars at around 24 months. It also says what teething does not cause, and what is never safe to use.
Teething timeline calculator
No sign-up · PrivateThe timeline is worked out from here.
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Next teeth to arrive
around January 2027 — the two front teeth, top and bottom
Age today: 0 days
Teeth you would typically expect by now: none yet — the AAP puts the first tooth at 4 to 7 months
First tooth: NHS: around 6 months. AAP: teething usually starts between 4 and 7 months
Full set of 20: NHS: most children have all their milk teeth by 2 to 3 years — for your baby, July 2028 to July 2029
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How this is calculated
FormulaHow the teething dates are worked out
Each date is the date of birth plus the age the NHS gives for that set of teeth. The NHS ages, unchanged, are:
- Central incisors (the front teeth) — around 6 months
- Lateral incisors (either side of them) — around 8 months
- First molars (the first back teeth) — around 12 months
- Canines (the pointed teeth) — around 18 months
- Second molars (the very back) — around 24 months
Each set is four teeth, two upper and two lower, so a full set is twenty. The NHS adds that “bottom teeth often emerge before the matching upper teeth” and that “most children will have all their milk teeth by the time they are 2 to 3 years old”. If you enter how many teeth are through, the tool compares that against the running total those ages imply: 4 by 6 months, 8 by 8 months, 12 by 12 months, 16 by 18 months and 20 by 24 months.
How wide is “around”
Very wide. The American Academy of Pediatrics puts the start of teething at 4 to 7 months — a three-month window on the first tooth alone — and the NHS gives a full year of leeway on a complete set. Several months either side of every date is ordinary. The order, by contrast, is fairly reliable.
The temperature threshold
Teething can cause a mildly raised temperature. It cannot cause a fever. The NHS gives “lower than 38C”; the AAP gives “a slight rise in temperature (but not over 101 degrees Fahrenheit or 38.3 degrees Celsius)” and says a higher fever with real distress “is probably not from teething”. Above that threshold your baby is ill and the teeth are a coincidence.
Teething is a range, not a schedule
The dates this tool gives you are the NHS's typical ages applied to your baby's birthday, and the word doing most of the work in them is “around”. The American Academy of Pediatrics puts the arrival of the very first tooth anywhere between 4 and 7 months. The NHS gives a full year — 2 to 3 years — for a complete set of twenty. Babies are occasionally born with a tooth already through, and plenty have a bare gum at their first birthday.
What is reliable is the order. Front teeth first, usually the bottom pair, then the ones either side, then the first molars at the back, then the canines filling the gap that has been left, then the second molars right at the back. If your baby is following that order, the timing is a detail.
What teething actually feels like
The NHS lists sore, red gums where the tooth is coming through; a mildly raised temperature under 38C; one flushed cheek; a rash on the face; rubbing an ear; dribbling more than usual; gnawing and chewing on everything; being more fretful; and not sleeping well. Symptoms often start a few days before the tooth appears and settle once it is through.
Some babies sail through it and you find a tooth by accident with a spoon. Others have a miserable fortnight for every tooth. Neither says anything about the child.
What teething does not cause
This is the most useful thing on this page, so it is worth being blunt. Teething does not cause a fever of 38C or more. It does not cause diarrhoea, vomiting, a bad cough, or a rash on the body. The AAP is explicit that a high fever with real distress “is probably not from teething”.
Every year, babies who are genuinely unwell are watched for a day too long because somebody said it was teething. If your baby has a fever, treat them as ill and get them seen. Any fever at all in a baby under 3 months needs same-day medical advice, teeth or no teeth.
What helps
The NHS suggests something to chew on — a teething ring, which can be cooled in the fridge but never the freezer, because a frozen one is hard enough to damage the gum, and never tied around the neck. For babies over 6 months who have started solids, raw fruit and vegetable sticks or soft fruit like melon, always with you watching, because the choking risk is real. Rubbing the gum gently with a clean finger. Wiping the dribble off the chin to stop a rash forming. And distraction, which works better than it sounds.
On painkillers, the NHS position is that paracetamol can be given from 2 months and ibuprofen from 3 months, at the dose on the packet, in sugar-free form. Aspirin must never be given to anyone under 16. If your baby was born prematurely, had a low birth weight, or is under 3 months, ask a pharmacist, health visitor or GP before giving anything.
Where the UK and the US genuinely disagree
On teething gels, the NHS says there is a lack of evidence that they work, and that if you use one it must be a pharmacy-only product formulated for young children — never a general adult oral pain gel.
The US position is stronger. The FDA has urged manufacturers to stop marketing over-the-counter teething products containing benzocaine for children under 2, because benzocaine can cause methaemoglobinaemia, a serious and sometimes fatal condition in which red blood cells lose much of their ability to carry oxygen. The AAP describes homeopathic teething tablets as providing no benefit, with some found to contain harmful ingredients, and notes that pain medicines rubbed on the gums wash out within minutes anyway.
If you have moved between the two countries, or are reading advice from both, that is why the guidance you have been given does not match.
Nothing goes round a baby's neck
Amber teething necklaces, bracelets and anklets have no plausible mechanism and a real risk. The FDA has warned against them and the AAP states plainly that they “do not do anything at all to relieve pain, and have caused cases of choking and strangulation”. The same applies to tying a teething ring on a ribbon.
Start brushing with the first tooth
Register your baby with a dentist as soon as teeth come through, and brush twice a day from the very first one, with a smear of fluoride toothpaste. Milk teeth fall out, which is why people relax about them — but decay in them hurts, can need treatment under general anaesthetic, and the habit is the thing you are really building. Two minutes, twice a day, starting the week the first tooth appears.
Sources
- Baby teething symptoms — NHS, accessed
- Tips for helping your teething baby — NHS, accessed
- Teething: 4 to 7 Months — American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org), accessed
- Safely Soothing Teething Pain in Infants and Children — US Food and Drug Administration, accessed