Sucking Habits: how and when to treat it in a orthodontic x fonoaudiology view

Lêda Maria José MONGUILHOTT, Jane Simone FRAZZON, Vânia Belli CHEREM

The purpose of this paper is to share information about sucking habits, as digit, thumb sucking or pacifier. Factors as the sex, age, socio-economic status, feeding pattern, and other, are closely related with the prevalence of the sucking habits. Among the etiological factors are the time of feeding, family conflicts, stress, imitation, anxiety, and others. However, prolonged sucking habits can have a negative impact on normal development of dental occlusion, and involve the morphology and the stomatognatic system role. The frequency, intensity and duration of this habits, will determine the gravity of the effects upon the dentition, characterized by an anterior open bite, spacing in anterior teeth, narrowing of the maxillary arch, posterior cross bite, upper anterior protrusion, proclination of maxillary incisors, retroinclination of mandibular incisors and alteration of reflex-vegetable function, including speech dysfunction. The treatment when necessary and after a correct diagnosis, may be variable and depend of the child age. Behavior conditioning techniques, positive reinforcement and dental appliances such a fixed palatal crib, or a removable one, and fonoaudiologic treatment to eliminate the habit and treat their consequences, are important aspects when we are in charge of the patients.

Keywords: Orthodontics. Speech therapy. Anterior open bite. Palatal crib. Expansion.

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