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DRThere’s no doubt, dummies (pacifiers) are a very handy tool.
They’re cute and they can help soothe instantly..
But it doesn’t matter if they’re made of plastic or if they are made of rubber.. dummies do have a negative impact on facial, jaw and airway development and the teeth!
Do dummies make the teeth crooked?
The answer is yes. More specifically, they can cause;
Anterior open bite- when the front and bottom
Teeth are pushed outwards.
Narrow high palate- when the roof of the mouth is higher than normal and the airway is narrow, resulting in a narrow airway.
Prosterior crossbite- when the front teeth are an overbite, extending over the bottom teeth but the molars are an underbite, meaning the bottom molars protrude further into the cheek than the top molars.
Narrow intercuspal width of the maxillary arch- when the width between the top molars is narrower than it should be.
The concern when it comes to airway development is the narrowness that dummy use causes to the palate which extends to the airway.
Narrow jaws = narrow airway.
Ultimately, when the dummy is in the mouth, the tip of the tongue can not sit resting on the roof of the mouth (we talk about that a lot here don’t we!) - it’s just SO important !
Without this natural palate expander (aka- the tongue) in the right place it’s really difficult to get proper development happening.
Parents- We’ll wrap up by saying no you’re not a bad parent if you use or have used a dummy. Every situation is different and certainly there are benefits to using a dummy…
… and when it comes to development, luckily there’s a lot we can do to get development pointing in the right direction, especially if we address it as early on as possible.
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#dummy #pacifier #dummyuse #byebyebinky
@drmarklevi
