Children’s Oral Habits and Habit Breaking Devices

Children’s Oral Habits and Habit Breaking Devices

As a Parent, if your child has any oral habit, you probably have a concern about what consequences of these habits may be for teeth and jaws as they grow. When all else fails and a child is having a particularly difficult time breaking the habit, various Dentally Designed HABBIT BREAKING appliances may be suggested.

How do Oral Habits cause problem?

Prolonged Thumb/Digit Sucking may cause teeth to become malaligned or push the front teeth outward. This Pushing of teeth lead to OPEN BITE. (A type of malalignment)

This OPEN BITE causes several issues in speech such as

-Inability to say ‘T’ , ‘S’ , ‘D’ , lisping or thrusting out the tongue while speaking.

When should you take your child to a professional for Check-up/Evaluation of any Oral Habits?

An early evaluation is always an important tool in monitoring your child’s growth patterns.

Child should be evaluated by Dental Professional – Pedodontist regularly till age of 7 years to look out for various Oral Habits.

If your child maintenance his/her Oral Hygiene poorly by age of 4 or more, then the Pedodontist should be concerned for the same, by the parent.

The Earlier your child has an Oral Habit evaluation, lower will be the risk of the malalignment of the teeth.

What is an oral Habits-Breaking Appliance?

There are a few different varieties of habit-breaking appliances, including fixed and removable ones. When a child visits a pediatric dentist, they will frequently use a fixed oral habit-breaking device since it works the best and the success is not dependent on the child wearing it according to instructions. Intending to entirely break the tendency, we leave it in place for specific period of time depending upon the time to break the habbit (Case Specific).

When considering habit-breaking devices for children, it is best to have them installed by a licensed professional – Pedodontists because they are experts at preventing malocclusion, which can be the result of weak oral propensities. 

 What to Expect with a Habit-Breaking Appliance?

It is painless to put on and wear a habit-breaking device for children. When toddlers first receive a habit-breaking appliance, they may be a little grumpy for a few days and may have problems falling asleep because youngsters frequently use thumb sucking, in particular, to soothe themselves. Your youngster will learn new coping skills and comforting techniques as this phase passes.

Now that you know the fundamentals of habit-breaking devices for kids, you may arrange an appointment with us if you’re worried about your child’s thumb-sucking, pacifier use, or tongue thrusting. We’ll educate you on how to stop tongue thrusting and thumb sucking and assess your child to see whether a habit-breaking device is the best option for their requirements.

Conclusion & Contacts Us

Paediatric Dentist & Orthodontist is a great combination to diagnose and treat malalignment of teeth.

Our highly trained Paediatric Dentist & Orthodontist excel at co-ordinating and communicating with each other to provide continuity of care to your child.

We partner with you and your child to educate and reward good dental habits & hygiene throughout the treatment.