Dentures: Facts, Figures and Friendly Advice for Seniors

Your Child's Thumb-Sucking Tendencies Could Be Hurting Their Teeth

16 August 2016

Herman Kim

While thumb-sucking is considered normal, once a child turns a certain age their parents should work with them to stop. When your child hits 4 or 5 years of age and he or she is still sucking his or her thumb, then problems can arise. Your child's teeth in particular are in great danger of suffering from poor development.

What Can Go Wrong With The Teeth?

When a child gets to around 5 years of age, permanent teeth start to develop. So if his or her thumb-sucking behaviour persists, the permanent teeth may be shaped out of form. One shape-related problem that your child can suffer from is known as an overjet. This is when the incisors or the upper front teeth are pushed outward while the lower incisors are pushed inward.

Another problem that may occur is an open bite. This occurs when the incisors are prevented from a complete eruption. Cross-bite is another problem and it occurs when the top molars bite the inside of the lower molars. Some of these problems self-correct, but that is a solution you do not want to rely on because there are also instances where they fail to correct on their own. In fact, surgery may be required to correct the problem if the condition is too bad.

What Can You Do To Rectify The Problem?

Prevention is the best cure so you should stop your child from sucking his or her thumb after the child reaches the age of 4 or 5. Different techniques exist when it comes to stopping thumb-sucking behaviours. One way is putting a bitter-tasting material on the child's thumb. And when your child goes to sleep, wrap a bulky bandage around his or her mid-arm. This will make it difficult for the child's hand to get to the mouth while the child is sleeping.

Another technique that works is jogging the child's psychology. Reward your child when he or she goes without sucking the thumb for an agreed period of time; such acts will motivate the child to resist the temptation of thumb-sucking in the future. And note that yelling at your child or punishing your child for his or her thumb-sucking tendencies won't do any good. This is because a child sometimes sucks his or her thumb to deal with stress; so punishing him or her will only increase the stress.

Talk with a general dentist to learn more about oral health and tooth development so you can keep your children healthy. 

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