Habit Appliance Therapy
Breaking a habit is difficult, we can help.
Habit appliance therapy is a relatively simple treatment designed to stop your child’s oral habits like thumb sucking or tongue thrusting. Either of these habits done in a persistent manner can cause permanent damage to your child’s adult teeth, which may result in their needing major corrective work from our orthodontist in Staten Island. To counteract this, we insert a fixed appliance behind the teeth that will work along with your child to correct their habit.
While many children suck their thumb, it becomes less common and more problematic once they begin to reach the age of 5 and beyond. Similarly, tongue thrusting habits will have hopefully self-corrected by the time your child reaches 9 years of age.
If your child has a habit they would like to give up like thumb sucking or tongue thrusting, schedule an appointment with our orthodontist in Staten Island today to discuss treatment options.
What else should I know about Habit Appliance Therapy?
It’s important for your child to be committed to stopping the habit of their own will, or else the prognosis is poor according to our Staten Island orthodontist
Generally speaking, it’s best to choose the appliance that’s the least comfortable for the patient in order to break their habit
Pacifiers can cause similar damage and are not an appropriate substitute for Habit Appliance Therapy
Above all, hang tight. We know that breaking habits is hard work. With your assistance and our expertise your child is bound to overcome any dental obstacle.
