Teeth braces and Thumb sucking
Some Pediatric dentists has the opinion that thumb sucking over a prolonged period of time doesn’t harm the child’s teeth.But thumb sucking during the course of time will dislocate the teeth’s position which will force the child to wear a brace in his later life.
It is a misconception that thumb sucking will completely misalign the teeth.Thumb Sucking is a natural human reflex which the infants develop when they are in the mother’s womb.The thumb sucking in the early days of babyhood will give comfort to the baby.It has been told that we don’t want to discourage the baby when they put their finger into their mouth.
But in the case of children who continues their habit of thumb sucking even after they stopped breast feeding will sometimes can cause an extension in the upper teeth which is commonly called as buck teeth.
Problems of prolonged thumb sucking
- The front lower teeth will begin to tilt in
- Sometimes the upper and lower teeth will come together
- The constant pressure due to thumb sucking will cause the upper jaw to become narrow
Normally,most of the child stops thumb sucking after they stopped breast feeding or bottle feeding
Discouraging methods if your child still prefers thumb sucking after he/she stopped thumb sucking
- Positive reinforcement therapy is the best method which helps the children to stop thumb sucking.parents can enforce a positive habit by using a sticker chart or a gold star chart.The child can resist thumb sucking by placing a star on the chart for everyday.
- Parents can also try a chance by applying bitter tasting solutions to discourage thumb sucking.But this is not effective as the first method since this habit is actually not a pleasurable one but an ingrained one.
- Use protective gloves to prevent the child from putting the thumb into the mouth.But this method will only be effective if the child is too small to be able to remove the glove on his/her own
- There is finger or thumb guard available at any drug market which makes it difficult for the child to suck the thumb which eventually will discourage the child from sucking the thumb.
Better consult a pediatric dentist if none of the above methods work
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admin on May 13th 2009 in Teeth Braces