Dental professionals are abuzz about an amazing discovery involving prenatal baby-tooth formation.

Incisors grow faster in mid-gestation, erupting at the perfect time to coincide with weaning at six months.

An article in the British Medical Journal, “Boosting length of breastfeeding could save NHS more than 40 million pounds each year,” was published on December 5, 2014.

The research indicates that mothers stop breastfeeding earlier than the ideal weaning time, primarily due to socio-economic factors.

Scientists are excited about this finding, because the discovery may lead to a better understanding of a perplexing developmental oddity: Why do dental problems occur in different ways in different teeth?

With dental caries posing a significant health problem worldwide, premature loss of baby teeth is currently a focus of vigorous research. According to an article in Dentistry Today, scientists would love to unravel this mystery.

Worldwide, there is a focus on ways to prevent premature loss of baby teeth as early dental disease often carries lifetime repercussions. (The original source for the article arose from a study conducted by the Human Osteology Research Lab at the University of Kent’s School of Anthropology and Conservation in the United Kingdom. It appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.)

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