How to Help Your Child Kick Bad Orthodontic Habits

As adults, we have a lifetime of experience developing and breaking bad habits, but helping your child kick a bad habit can be challenging. When your child goes through orthodontic treatment, many challenges may develop that require a bit of finesse and coaching to get through it.

In this blog, the highly skilled team at Duval Orthodontics shares their insights into some bad orthodontics habits and how you can help your child kick them to the curb while cultivating new healthy habits that can serve them for a lifetime.

How habits develop

You’ve probably tackled trying to create a new healthy habit during your life, like eating more nutritious meals or getting more exercise. You probably also had a seemingly helpful friend or co-worker who gave unsolicited advice that it was all about mind over matter.

As annoying as it is to admit, there’s a lot of truth in that pithy saying. Good or bad habits develop by rewiring the brain to where action becomes so ingrained that you no longer think about it. Typically, your brain responds to some trigger or cue, like boredom or stress. In response to that trigger, an action takes place, and through learning and repetition, that action ultimately becomes a habit – regardless of whether it’s a good or bad habit.

Bad habits that can damage your child’s braces and teeth

As a parent or guardian, you can be an example to help gently teach your child to abandon bad habits and take up healthier ones. You are your child’s best advocate and know them better than anyone else.

Be vigilant observing your child’s triggers like boredom and stress and redirect their energy. Even better: If you share one of your child’s bad oral habits, why not learn to break those bad habits together? You both benefit, and it can become one of those shared experiences that bring you closer.

Bad orthodontic habits have the dubious distinction of being harmful to your teeth or jaw while also having the potential of damaging braces or clear aligners.

Nail biting: This top-ranking nervous habit places the jaw in a precarious position while also applying pressure. Mitigating stress triggers, stress management techniques, and distracting your child by keeping their fingers busy can help.

Thumb sucking: This bad habit can be routine among younger children. Extended thumb sucking can cause jaw issues and affect speaking. Positive reinforcement using incentives and gentle reminders can work wonders.   

Tongue thrusting: This condition happens when the tongue sticks out further in the mouth than usual. The tongue presses against the back of the teeth or between the top and bottom teeth. Sometimes, tongue thrusting is part of thumb sucking, and in other cases, medical conditions like enlarged tonsils can be the culprit.

If the thumb sucking is contributing to your child’s tongue-thrusting habit, our professional team at Duval Orthodontics may recommend an orthodontic appliance called a tongue crib. 

Similar to a retainer, a tongue crib is a wire cage that sits behind the front teeth and creates a barrier, preventing the thumb from entering the mouth or, in the case of tongue thrusting, stops the tongue from pushing too far forward.  

Chewing hard candy and ice: Chewing and crunching ice, hard candy, and foods like unpopped corn kernels can wreak havoc on your teeth's enamel and damage braces. Removing the temptation by serving beverages without ice and ensuring unpopped kernels aren’t in the bottom of the bowl on movie night is a great start to breaking that bad habit.

Using your teeth as scissors: Teeth should never be a substitute for tools like scissors. This bad habit can lead to a jaw injury or can damage braces. If your child uses their teeth as tools, why not strategically place scissors or handy tools throughout the house and ensure they know how to properly and safely use them all?

If you’re concerned about your child’s bad orthodontic habits and want to learn how we can help, contact Duval Orthodontics for a consultation. Call the office in Warner Robins or Albany, Georgia, or book an appointment online today.