22 Oct

Sucking your Thumb in the City of London

It is hard to think that thumb sucking in the city of London can be so dangerous to a child’s teeth, yet it can cause prolific damage to the growth of teeth in general. In young children, it is seen as a form of comfort and at first it is quite acceptable. But as children grows and gets their second teeth, it can serious miss shape the way teeth grow, forcing the top teeth outwards and the bottom teeth inwards and as well as this, in a child as young as four, the jaws are still soft, as they are still growing and constant thumb sucking can cause deformity in their shape: the palate may also become deformed and cause problems in breathing and swallowing later on in life. Surprisingly, there has be a lot of research done on this and from that has come a series of methods designed to wean a child off of sucking on the thumb, some being rather drastic. Praising a child for not carrying out this act is probably the most passive way, followed up by proffering a reward. However, the harsher approach is to dip the thumb in something foul tasting or even binding the thumb to the other fingers. The world of dentistry has even come up with thumb sucking gloves in order to dissuade the child from sucking the thumb. It’s strange to think that such a natural thing in a child could end up being so damaging further on in their lives.