Attention: These bad habits can cause children to have uneven teeth

Bad oral habits such as sticking out the tongue, sucking fingers, biting foreign objects, and chewing on one side may affect the development of the child's oral and maxillofacial system, and parents should pay attention.

Falling is a common occurrence for active children.

However, if the child hits his chin when he falls, even if there is no surface injury, it should not be ignored - because it may cause the child's permanent teeth to grow inverted or his face to be crooked! Similarly, daily habits of children such as sticking out the tongue and sucking fingers may also affect the development of the child's oral and maxillofacial system and cause uneven teeth. Recently, at the "I am a Little Tooth Guardian" event hosted by Guangdong Provincial Stomatological Hospital and co-organized by Family Doctor Online, Lan Zedong, Executive Vice President of Guangdong Provincial Stomatological Hospital, reminded parents of these situations.

If the upper front teeth are injured, the permanent teeth will grow backwards easily.

The period when deciduous teeth fall out and permanent teeth erupt is when children are most active and lively, but their self-protection ability is relatively weak. They are prone to collisions and falls when playing or doing strenuous exercise. If the child suffers an accident that causes dental trauma at this time, it may affect the growth of permanent teeth and maxillofacial development.

Lan Zedong introduced that if a child hits his upper front teeth of the deciduous teeth, it may affect the permanent tooth germ at the root tip of the deciduous teeth. Some children will have abnormal development of permanent teeth with crooked roots. If the crown of the tooth is impacted, it is easy for the crown to become inverted and impacted. When the permanent tooth should grow, the permanent tooth will either not grow out or grow upwards. Some inexperienced doctors may simply pull out the inverted permanent tooth, but doing so will not only cause the child to lose the permanent tooth forever, affecting chewing and appearance, but it is also more likely to lead to maxillary hypoplasia due to the loss of the upper incisors, and some children will develop an overbite as they grow older.

He reminded parents that if a child's permanent teeth are inverted, they should take the child to a professional orthodontist for evaluation. Through guided eruption, there is a chance that the permanent teeth will erupt smoothly and the loss of permanent teeth can be avoided.

If a child hits his chin, parents should not ignore it even if there is no obvious injury at the moment. As the chin is hit and the facial condyles are impacted, the height and size of the left and right condyles may be inconsistent as the child grows older, causing asymmetry and crookedness of the face. Lan Zedong advises parents that if a child falls seriously, there is a high probability that there will be a fracture of the condylar neck, and they should take the child to a professional doctor for examination as soon as possible. Even if the child has no surface scars after the fall, parents should pay attention to whether the child's face shape becomes asymmetrical within 3 to 6 months after the fall.

Sticking out the tongue can easily lead to "buzzy teeth" in children

Lan Zedong also introduced that for children who are in the period of deciduous teeth or are in the process of changing teeth, bad oral habits such as sticking out the tongue, sucking fingers, biting foreign objects, and chewing on one side are closely related to the development of the oral and maxillofacial system. As parents, we should always observe and if we find the above phenomena, it is best to take our children to the orthodontic department or pediatric dentistry department of an oral hospital to see a doctor.

For example, frequently sticking out the tongue can easily cause the child to have an "open jaw", which means the mouth cannot close. This often leads to mouth breathing, and long-term mouth breathing can also cause jaw deformities and the appearance of "buzzing teeth". Biting hard objects and sucking fingers can often cause a small partial open bite, which is also detrimental to appearance. If a child chews with one side of his teeth for a long time, the less used side may have missing teeth, decay, underdeveloped jaws or muscles, while the jaws and muscles on the more commonly used side will be overdeveloped, thus forming an "uneven face".

In addition, if you find that your child breathes with his mouth open when sleeping, or likes to sleep on his side or stomach, sleeps restlessly, is prone to convulsions, and has loud breathing, it is recommended to go to a professional dental or otolaryngology department to check the tonsils and adenoids to see if the enlarged tonsils and adenoids have affected the ventilation function and caused the child to develop sleep apnea syndrome. Severe sleep apnea syndrome can cause children to lack oxygen, affecting the development of brain cells and intellectual development.