Sucking Thumb is a common habit in children, and teens, babies often suck thumbs for a soothing experience. If this childhood habit remains for a long-time, it may leave negative impacts on the oral condition of your babies such as teeth alignment and jaw development.
Therefore, if you find your babies doing that make them sop sucking thumb for better oral health. In this article, we are going to explain the health-related side effects of sucking the thumb.
Open Bite
An adverse effect of thumb sucking is dental malocclusion. A term in dentistry explaining tooth misalignment that becomes visible when you close the mouth. Besides, thumb sucking can result in two more types of malocclusion such as overbite and open bite that we will explain further.
Open bite appears when the top and bottom front teeth move outwards. This misalignment refers that the front teeth do not touch the bottom even if the mouth closes completely.
Seek an immediate oral consultation for open bite treatment or else it may worsen the condition.
Overbite
Overbite occurs when your teeth direct outwards. However, the misalignment only impacts the upper front teeth. It means your top teeth will cover the bottom teeth when the mouth is closed rather than the top and bottom teeth having contact unlike in other conditions.
Overbite has a negative impact on your overall face and smile. Children or teens with such problems should ask an orthodontic for a quick solution.
Often patients suffering overbite receive treatment with headgear and other orthodontic tools as teeth overlapping can preserve metal bracket placement.
Skin Issues
Several health-related problems for your kids appear because of sucking your thumb. According to the studies thumb sucking individuals may suffer serious skin issues. Such an amount of moisture makes your skin vulnerable to injuries. Furthermore, your skin may start bleeding making your child’s hand unprotected from severe infections.
If you find such problems you need to advise kids to stop sucking their thumbs. If he is too young to follow your advice then bandage the thumb he sucks often. It will discourage his sucking habit urging restrict that behavior.
Moreover, placing a medical finger glove is also a great idea in this regard. Some parents adopt alternative strategies as a solution such as placing the thumb into un tasteful substance. Which only irritates your children instead of being productive.
Speech Issues
As thumb sucking impacts jaw development and palate it can also alter your kid’s way of speech and eating. As per the expert dentists’ thumb sucking can result in speech problems even in the early ages of your kid’s life. Which can result in an inability to produce hard sounds like T and D.
Although a speech therapist can solve the problem with proper care. However, without oral care, his treatment may not be effective. It is because the unorganized sounds are a reason for deformed teeth shape.
On the other hand, speech problems cause problems for your children while communicating. Many individuals with such issues undergo anger and frustration. Therefore, being a guardian, you have to make the children stop sucking their thumbs.
Social Problems
When sucking your thumb starts to become a permanent habit for your little ones, it brings social problems as well. Individuals when sucking their thumbs in open public places become the target of mockery. Although it is a normal habit found in any kid, the older he gets more the people to start judging him for perusing the habit.
Sucking your thumb is also an unconscious response to stress for many children. As your baby may not think before putting his thumb to work. Which means he may need guidance to avoid such practice in the future.
When you are putting efforts with your kids to avoid the habit remember it will not lead to any phycological issues. All he needs is your help and guidance from the dentists to break free from sucking his thumb.
Whereas, it is a goal for your little one who needs your assistance and support. In children with no permanent teeth, thumb sucking is usually harmless. As your child’s baby teeth begin to fall out and his or her adult teeth begin to develop, however, you should encourage your child to switch to other comfort methods.
Unnecessary thumb-sucking results in numerous health issues, above mentioned are the serious ones. Here we will also educate you about
How to Stop Thumb-Sucking?
Before going straight to the remedies for discouraging the thumb-sucking habit. We will explain some general pressures urging an individual to leave this habit.
Often a negative response from society and peers might lead one to quit this habit. After observing such behavior from his sound, a kid might come to know such practice is not encouraged anymore.
If your children keep perusing the habit, below are the tips on How to stop thumb-sucking.
- Use Nail polish
- Observe patterns of thumb sucking
- Offer incentives and rewards
- Learn together about this habit
- Use a Finger Guard
- Create Rules
These are very healthy remedies when it is about stopping sucking your thumb. Especially offering incentives for the kids is an effective technique to make them avoid sucking their thumbs. It is because human responds quickly to something he likes very much. Offering your kid candies and other exciting stuff can be an excellent strategy.
In case of further problems please book an appointment with your health care expert.
Wrapping things up
Kids often suck their thumbs and they enjoy it very much. However, it can become a problem when they continue with such practices. Sucking your thumb can result in teeth misalignment and jaw development issues. Above are the problems which your kid can face because of such habits. Therefore, try to make him leave the habit as early as possible.
