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ORAL HABITS OF COMPULSION
Oral habits of compulsion are repeated movements involving the mouth. The movements are caused by: lip biting, lip licking, lip sucking, tongue thrusting, and thumb or finger sucking. The repeated forces caused by these habits move teeth and bone.
When there is a compulsion, it is derived from the comfort of sucking the thumb, lip, or movement from which the child derives satisfaction. Tongue thrusting is the most insidious problem as it is difficult to observe, but lip biters move top teeth out and forward as do tongue thrusters. All these habits are abnormal and destructive to the teeth and face.
Tongue thrust habit:
Tongue thrust is an abnormal swallowing pattern. It is the way babies swallow when they have no teeth. Why do you want to stop tongue thrusting? Because tongue thrusting delays completion of treatment by forcing the teeth apart or forward. After the braces are removed, thrusting will ruin the results. Thrusting is a negative force. Thrusting will destroy straight teeth. Most tongue thrusters lick their lip prior to swallowing. They swallow with the tongue between the teeth instead of on the roof of the mouth. They do this about 2000 times per day and exert high pressure forces on the teeth. The forces are very destructive.
Thumb and/or finger habit:
Thumb suckers deform the upper jaw, move the teeth out forward, distort their nose growth, and in general ruin the environment for straight teeth. Long-term thumb or finger habits move the upper jaw forward, open the bite, and lead to abnormal tooth position and jaw related problems. This habit is usually associated with younger kids and is not usually a problem with kids over seven. If there is a problem after seven, it is usually severe and should be addressed as soon as possible. Treatment to stop the habit is usually just psychological and involves a discussion between patient and doctor.
Lip biting/sucking/licking:
Lip biting is a habit of repeatedly biting on the lower lip. Lip biting causes the upper teeth to move abnormally forward and keeps the front teeth from fitting together. Biting or sucking on the lower lip will move the lower teeth backwards and the upper teeth outward. Lip licking is associated with a tongue thrust. An enlarged, red, lower lip is an indication of lip biting. Red cracked lips are usually associated with lip lickers as the constant wetting and drying cracks the skin. Lip lickers lick their lips a thousand times a day. It's easy to catch them doing it. Just watch them when they don't know you are watching and that tongue is darting in and out of their mouth like a lizard. Not attractive.
Bottom-line: all of these habits greatly affect orthodontic treatment negatively. Oral habits have to be stopped or the situation only gets worse or ruins your orthodontic results.