By : Emily Taylor

Keeping infants and toddlers calm and comfortable is one of the hardest task new parents have to face. Temporary solutions like pacifiers or teethers are widely accepted by parents and children for the same concern, however, they come up with a few side effects.

Infants find sucking movement comforting, especially when they are mildly sick or irritated. To a certain extent, pacifiers are known to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDC). However, in the longer term, pacifiers can cause disturbance in many other areas of your child’s health.

A child may find it difficult to maintain a habit of breastfeeding because of pacifiers. Also, pacifiers, or sucking on the thumb can become a bad habit for a toddler that is hard to get rid of. Additionally, there are a handful of other oral health issues that can be a result of the lengthy usage of pacifiers.

How Do Pacifiers Affect Teeth?

Pacifiers can cause malocclusion of teeth causing an open bite or bucked teeth. It’s called bucked teeth when the front teeth seem to protrude outwards, causing discomfort. Apart from the open bite, crossed bite, bucked teeth, and overbite, pacifiers can also temper with the roof of the mouth, which plays a key role in functions like breathing, speaking, and eating. Pacifiers, otherwise known as ‘Binky’ or teethers are a tool of self-soothing for children. 

How to Prevent the Adverse Effects of Pacifiers?

Prevention is better than cure. If your child is already getting a habit of using a pacifier, try to make them quit it. Instead of pacifiers, use other soothing techniques for your infant. Once he or she becomes a toddler, pacifiers will be even harder to quit; so the earlier the better.

The other soothing techniques for your infant involve regular breastfeeding. Aside from that, use white noise, and rocking and swaying to sleep. Keeping the baby comforted at all times will get them away from the pacifiers. 

For toddlers, you can try offering them their preferred blanket, a comfort toy, etc. Taking your kid to an exciting environment or making them socialize with other kids will also help. A sipping cup filled with water will also help to quite an extent to get them off the pacifier.

But what if the child has already developed Pacifier teeth; Let’s see hereunder: 

If the pacifier has been used even after the age of 3, it is possible that the child might develop misaligned teeth. This will not only trouble the child while eating but also while speaking. Bucked teeth oftentimes, can result in speech impediments. If you haven’t prevented the pacifier habit and results, you will need an orthodontist to correct the teeth. Treating these issues is likely to take a substantial amount of time depending on the teeth. 

Avoiding pacifiers is an ideal way to deal with oral issues. However, if it has already caused any oral problems, an efficient orthodontist can be the ultimate solution. While treatment like braces may seem challenging, it is very effective and result oriented. [GP/JS]