Last Updated on April 27, 2023 by Tabraiz
Thumb-sucking is one of the most common activities that can be found among children. In actuality, chimpanzees and other animals share this behavior. According to the experts at dentistry for children, between 60 and 80 percent of infants and young children habitually suck their thumbs.
Sucking your thumb gives newborns a sense of security for surviving in their new environment. Through this behavior, they find solace in themselves. They either use this habit of thumb-sucking to get to sleep quickly or to pass the time. Nevertheless, this practice ends after the first six months of a child’s life. In a nutshell, this behavior isn’t detrimental when a baby is in its infancy stages. However, it can be harmful as people age.
The Effects of Thumb-Sucking on Dental Health
Thumb sucking can harm a child’s dental health if they continue to do so after age six. This is due to the fact that children start losing their teeth between the ages of five and six and thumb sucking may lead to a shift in teeth’s structure, which might further lead to an overbite.
If the child quits sucking their thumb, this destructive oral health pattern or behavior can disappear. However, if the issue worsens, you shouldn’t hesitate to schedule an appointment with the best baby dentist in Johns Creek.
A change in the form of the jaw caused by the severity of the habit might result in a surgical emergency.
Another habit is likely to be instilled when a child stops thumb-sucking at a later age due to failure to cease the behavior at the appropriate age. This tendency of tongue thrusting causes the jaw and teeth to stay out of alignment.
The expansion of the palate on the roof of the mouth is yet another negative effect of thumb-sucking. This is also how other issues manifest, such as abnormal eating and digestion habits, tonsils that collapse and cause snoring, and skeletal abnormalities.
Additionally, speed barriers pass through this habit of thumb-sucking. It derives its roots from palate development and misalignment.
Thumb-Sucking: Is It a Good Habit?
Now that you are aware of the results of this pattern, you may be asking whether or not this behavior is healthy. The simple answer is that it may be calming in the early years, but it is no longer healthy after your child becomes five.
If your child is older than five or six and cannot break the behavior, you must take action. Consultation with the best Johns Creek baby root canal that can address your oral concerns can be the best line of action.
On a personal level, you can take action to stop this tendency, though. Let’s determine how to do it.
Thumb-sucking Prevention: What Can You Do?
Always choose positive reinforcement over punishment for misbehavior. Therefore, if you are serious about helping your child stop thumb-sucking, you must first set up an incentive system so that your child can break the practice out of greed for something beneficial.
You can also try to put a bandage on your child’s thumb, keeping in mind the dental angle, to prevent them from having access to the thumb and sucking it. You can also try applying nail paint of particular brands so that kids don’t suck the thumb as another strategy.
Hand gloves or socks for babies can usually be the basic precautions that can help prevent them from sucking their thumbs. Your child should always be aware that thumb sucking is not a healthy dental habit to learn and may even be detrimental. For the later orthodontic health to be highly fruitful, it may become necessary to place a fence to this sucking activity at some point.
The purchase of a T-guard is another tactic you might use to stop the unwanted pattern of sucking. This device is fastened to the wrist and extends over the thumb. In this manner, vacuum formation while sucking is rendered impossible. Thumb-sucking becomes less satisfying and pleasurable for a child as a result. And hence, this option to stop thumb-sucking is successful.
Instead of just giving them instructions, you must try to include your child as well in the process of breaking the habit.
Working Out Seriously Toward the Problem
Being a parent requires paying close attention, especially when noting your kids’ routines. Thumb sucking is detrimental to your child’s oral health if it has been a habit.
From the beginning, develop a sense of correctness in your child and incentivize them, so they don’t fall prey to the thumb-sucking habit.
It will help if you put some effort into getting advice from an expert to stop this behavior so that negativity cannot obstruct your child’s teeth from developing typically.
Consult the best Johns Creek infant dentist so you can identify the root of the abnormal behavior and take urgent action to correct it.
Decent tooth health can be hampered by thumb-sucking, so you must make significant efforts in the direction of eliminating it.
