Speaking of thumbsucking

[conuly]

I have a long-standing rule that the more people assert a thing, the more likely it is that I should look it up for my own self.

This rule has never steered me wrong, and this is what I found out when I tried to trace the source of the claim that thumbsucking will inevitably do immense damage to your teeth and jaw: lots of sites claim this, but few of them offer any citations. Those that do all cite the same few studies, the last of which was done in the 1960s. For the record, that study states that the risk of causing damage is highest in children, whose teeth are still coming in and whose palates are still growing, and in those who actively suck on their thumbs rather than simply sticking them in their mouths and keeping them there, and, unsurprisingly, in those who spend a lot of time daily on thumbsucking instead of just a few minutes here and there.

However... it's weird that they all cite such an old article, isn't it? Thumbsucking hasn't gone away. Orthodontia is still a booming business. Surely somebody's done some new research, right? I'm not just being performatively shocked here, I actually think it's strange.

Comments

[ayebydan]

My best friend is a Dentist so this is secondhand information but from a reliable source though of course as it comes from a dw friend you can take it as you like. We ended up having a huge conversation over this because my friend actually has....not great teeth and I was like huh.

Anyway. As redbird pointed out a huge issue is that no one wants to do another big research project into 'water is wet' when so many things are scrapping over so little funding.

Also, Dentists tend to be trusted professionals who face less wariness than others in the medical realm. And they have never wavered from the stance that sucking your thumb is not great and you need to get rid of that dummy/pacifier I think you call it? by X age. Despite her own father being a dentist and her mother a school teacher my friend never did. She still sucks her thumb. At 29. And it has deformed her jaw and mouth. If she was not the kid of a dentist willing to do the work on her for free she would be thousands to fix her jaw, rotate her teeth back into the right positions and in general get traintrack braces.

But yeah she explained to me it is the same way that prolonged drug amuse and tensing the muscles in your jaw etc deformed it. It is forcing things to sit in an unnatural way. That is why tension headaches form sitting your jaw a certain way and bad things happen when you grind your teeth at night.

But she assures me that a dentist can tell from one glance in your mouth, sometimes don't even need you to open your mouth, that you suck your thumb either now or that you did prolonged as a child. It isn't talked about now because it is as obvious to most as saying 'you need to brush your teeth'.


And as my friend hasn't cracked her thumb habit....no braces or wires or surgery yet. But her dad retires soon so her clock is ticking for sure.