Parents often wonder whether or not use of a pacifier is good or not - "will this affect my child's teeth?", "will this affect their jaws?" Early use of pacifiers is considered normal! Only prolonged use of the pacifier can cause changes in the position of your child's teeth and jaws. How often your child has the pacifier in their mouth, how long they keep it in their mouth each time, and how hard they are sucking on the pacifier are all factors that can contribute to how your child's teeth may be affected.
At ages younger than 3, pacifier use is considered normal because this is part of your child's coping mechanism and comfort system. As your child gets older, they gain more skills in order to help comfort themselves without the need of a pacifier. Our goal is to wean your child's pacifier habit by age 4 years in order to prevent any changes in your child's teeth. There is a possibility that changes may happen earlier than age 4 years, and your child's dentist will look out for these changes at each dental visit.
We all know how hard it is to break a habit, so here are some things your child's dentist may recommend to help with stopping your child's pacifier habit:
- Sticker charts - This is a reward system where your child can get a sticker for every day that they do not use their pacifier. After a certain amount of stickers collected, your child can receive a prize (that you decide together as parent and child)!
- Alternative comfort object - Since your child is using their pacifier for comfort, you can help them choose another object that may bring them comfort that they can trade out their pacifier for. They may choose a teddy bear or a toy that they can have with them whenever they need the comfort!
- Pacifier fairy - For children who are older, you can tell them about the pacifier fairy. The pacifier fairy collects pacifiers when children are ready to give it up - these pacifiers will be collected to be given to children who are in need of pacifiers. (Of course - this is all make-believe and you as the parent will be hiding away the pacifier, but this will allow your child to feel happy about giving their pacifier away for someone else!).
The biggest thing we must remember when trying to stop habits is that we don't want to punish your child for the habit. We want to encourage them to stop the habit on their own, not give them any consequences for its use. The stopping of a habit relies on your child's want and ability to stop the habit on their own!
Your child's dentist will work with you as a team to make sure pacifier use doesn't affect your child's teeth to give them their best smiles!
