Oral Habits When We Are Young Can Lead to a Lifetime of Health Issues
Let’s talk about “oral toxic habits,” AKA harmful oral habits that can significantly impact the oral development, particularly in children. These are habits such as: thumb sucking, prolonged pacifier/bottle use, and nail biting. Not only can these habits influence our teeth, they can also affect someone’s overall health. Yes, pacifiers serve a purpose in the early months to assist with sleep and are shown to prevent SIDS; however, after 4 months they can begin to cause more damage than good. The best way to use a pacifier is to only use it to assist with sleep and not during the awake periods. By 4 months swap the pacifier out with teethers or tools such as the MyoMunchee.
Oral habits when we are young can lead to a lifetime of health issues such as: poor sleep, mouth breathing, malocclusion, snoring, sleep apnea, digestive issues, congestion, the need for braces or expansion, behavior issues, improper jaw development, grinding and clenching, head and neck pain, and more.
Why are these aids and habits so harmful to our health? As our jaws and teeth are developing and erupting we are designed to have the tongue in the roof of our mouth to help create a wide upper palate and put pressure on the teeth as they erupt. The pressure of the tongue helps to prevent the teeth from shifting inwards and crowding (which is what they naturally want to do). When we have a foreign object in the mouth for prolonged periods such as a pacifier, bottle, or fingers we are preventing the tongue from being up in the roof of the mouth. These habits can all have a significant impact on our occlusion (how our teeth come together). We often see open bites, very narrow upper palates and malocclusion (teeth overlapping, delayed eruption, recommended to get teeth pulled due to space) in individuals who have/had an oral habit. This usually leads to someone needing braces/ortho, expanders and appliances in the future to restore the damage that has been done. Unfortunately, the damage will follow us into adulthood unless we also change the function.
Pacifiers should not be a replacement for our tongue.
Additionally, when we have an object in the mouth resting up on our palate other than the tongue, our tongue is hanging low. When our tongue is hanging low and in the improper position this will impact our ability to breathe properly. This can create a habit of mouth breathing. Consequently, this can lead to congestion, sleep issues, postural issues, increased sickness and more. When our tongue is hanging low, instead of up in the roof of the mouth, where it is intended, this then drags the rest of our face back and downwards. We often see small, set back chins in individuals who have a low tongue resting posture. We also typically see narrow airways that can lead to breathing disorders.
Thumb sucking can be a sign of a tongue tie.
In some situations people compensate with oral habits because their tongue is physically unable to be on the roof of their mouth. We often see thumb or finger sucking arise in individuals who have a tongue tie. Sometimes someone might begin thumb sucking as a calming tactic related to stressors in life. In circumstances of those who have a tongue tie, this is because their tongue is being pulled or restricted to the floor of the mouth and the tongue is unable to be up in the palate where it belongs. Correct tongue posture is critical for stimulation of the vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve is responsible for rest/digestion, calming the body after stress and to exit fight or flight, respiratory response, heart rate and more. When we are not getting enough of that stimulation from our tongue, the body finds a way to receive that stimulation another way. People may begin to thumb suck to get the stimulation they are missing out on. Instead of using our fingers to get the stimulation, myofunctional therapy can help people begin to teach their tongue to be in the proper position and stimulate the vagus nerve.
Ideally we should wean from bottles to an open cup between 6 months to a year.
So how can we help or prevent these oral toxic habits? First, it all starts with proper function during infancy. By working with myself or another provider trained on oral dysfunction, we can assess to see if there is tension present, low tone in the oral/facial muscles or improper habits. We can help with breast or bottle feeding to ensure that they are both creating the best oral function. We can help with weaning the pacifier and offering better, more beneficial tools for oral development. If low tongue posture is present, we can work with individuals to create the proper tongue resting posture. If braces are needed we can work alongside an orthodontist to ensure that once we have shifted the teeth and the bone, we also retrain the muscles so the teeth won’t shift back after completion of ortho. Myofunctional therapy works a lot like physical therapy. If we need an ACL surgery, we pair it with physical therapy to rehab the knee after surgery. Same with our mouth. If we need a tongue tie procedure, braces, or an oral appliance we also need to pair those with myofunctional therapy to retrain the muscles of our mouth and create proper habits and functions.
