Sucking Your Thumb Bad For Your Teeth And Your Speech?
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Thumb-Sucking Is Bad for Permanent Teeth, Dentists Warn
Children who habitually suck their thumbs after their permanent teeth have grown in are at risk for several oral health problems, warns the American Dental Association.
Thumb-suckers risk ruining the alignment of their teeth, affecting the proper growth of their mouths, and causing damage to the roofs of their mouths, according to the ADA.
Such damage may interfere with activities such as chewing and swallowing as well as with speech and facial appearance. For example, extended thumb-sucking may lead to protruding teeth.
While thumb-sucking is a normal outgrowth of the inborn sucking reflex and serves as a self-comfort measure for many infants and young children, it is important for kids to break the habit before their permanent teeth come in.
This usually happens at about the age of six. Most children have stopped sucking their thumbs long before this time. When children have not yet done so by the time their baby teeth start falling out, parents should encourage them to break this potentially damaging habit.
By the time thumb-sucking becomes a risk, most children are old enough to understand the reasoning behind why they should refrain from the habit, such as keeping germs out of their mouths and keeping their teeth strong and healthy. Explaining these reasons to children may help them to overcome their thumb-sucking habits.
A 2009 study found that thumb sucking can even hinder a child’s speach.
Researchers from the Corporacion de Rehabilitacion Club De Leones Cruz del Sur and the University of Washington Multidisciplinary International Research Training Program have said that the use of bottles, pacifiers and other sucking behaviours apart from breast-feeding may increase the risk of subsequent speech disorders in young children.
“These results suggest extended use of sucking outside of breast-feeding may have detrimental effects on speech development in young children”, said lead researcher Clarita Barbosa.
The study has been published in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics.
