Stop Letting Your Kids Suck Their Thumb [Infographic]

Keeping your child’s teeth healthy is one of the most important things you can do for their overall health and wellness. There are a variety of problems that affect the oral health of children, including tooth decay, thumb-sucking, tongue thrusting, lip sucking, and early tooth loss.

Tribeca Smiles wants to educate our patients on the consequences of letting your child suck their thumb.

It’s normal and healthy for infants to suck their thumbs, fingers, pacifiers, or toys. Object sucking gives children a sense of emotional security and comfort.

However, if thumb-sucking continues beyond the age of 5, when the permanent teeth begin to come in, dental misalignment issues can occur. Depending on how often, how intense, and how long the sucking occurs, the teeth can be pushed out of alignment, causing them to protrude and create an overbite.

Your child may also have difficulty with the correct pronunciation of words, which can affect their speech and self-confidence. In addition, the upper and lower jaws can become misaligned and the roof of the mouth might become malformed.

Check out the below infographic for more information on the consequences of letting your child suck their thumb:

This entry was posted in Tribeca Smiles Dental Blog and tagged child oral health, crooked teeth, crooked teeth from sucking thumb, dentist nyc, dentist soho, dentist tribeca, kids sucking thumb, misaligned teeth, Stop Letting Your Kids Suck Their Thumb [Infographic], sucking thumb, tribeca smiles on August 20, 2014 by tribecasmiles.

The post Stop Letting Your Kids Suck Their Thumb [Infographic] appeared first on Solomon, Frederick (tribecasmiles.com).