ORAL HABITS
Most common oral habits
- Thumb/finger sucking
- Prolonged pacifier use
- Prolonged bottle and sippy cup use
Babies use sucking to comfort and soothe themselves. Past 12-18 months, sucking can become an addictive behaviour.
Oral habits for extended periods of time can affect dental arch development, tongue posture, speech, and oral development in a negative way.
Prolonged finger/thumb sucking, pacifier and sippy cup use keeps mouth and lips open and creates a low resting tongue posture. It encourages dysfunctional swallowing.
Sucking habits change the Orofacial Muscle balance and function.
IF ORAL HABITS ARE LEFT UNTREATED, IT WILL LEAD TO DENTAL AND HEALTH PROBLEMS.
- Facial changes
- Narrow jaws
- Smaller airways
- Speech problems (Lisping, poor articulation)
- Open bite (gap in between the dental arches)
- Overjet (protruding front teeth)
- Tongue thrust
- Teeth grinding and clenching
- Jaw pain
- Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Dysfunctional swallowing
MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY AND ORAL HABITS
Oral habit elimination is part of Myofunctional Therapy. It should offer a method that is customized, fun, positive, and motivational to eliminate the habit. It will also help with oral rest posture rehabilitation for the tongue, lips, and jaw.
There are habit appliances that are designed and developed to stop the thumb sucking habits in children. However, these appliances do not encourage the proper rest posture of the oral muscles.
Myofunctional Therapy provides a lifetime of positive results and habits.