Dentist for babies – Can Pacifier Harm Your Baby’s Teeth?

Dentist for babies – Can Pacifier Harm Your Baby’s Teeth?

Can Pacifier Harm Your Baby’s Teeth?

Pacifiers can be advantageous for parents but a dentist for babies can tell you that they can actually harm your baby’s teeth. Prolonged use can cause all sorts of problems, not to mention the hassle that will come when you need to help your baby break the habit of sucking on pacifiers.

A pacifier can be quite useful, that’s true.

For example, it can help calm some babies when they’re particularly fussy. They can also help some babies fall asleep.

However, frequent usage can make babies be overly dependent on the pacifier. And long-term use of pacifiers can alter a baby’s teeth.

Your baby’s teeth can have abnormal alignment because of frequent and long-term use of pacifiers.

The top front teeth can jut out or even be pushed inwards.

There are cases where the top and bottom jaws aren’t aligned properly.

And also, their teeth may not come in properly.

Certain “bad habits” in terms of pacifier use can also have an adverse effect on your baby’s teeth.

When their babies are colicky, some parents dip pacifiers in fruit juice, sugar, sweetener or even honey to give to their baby. Sucking on something that’s sweet and harmful for your teeth can do a lot of damage to your teeth. A dentist for babies will tell you that this can cause cavities.

Some parents suck on their baby’s pacifier in order to clean it before giving it to their baby. However, that’s a habit that should be broken. Why? Because bacteria that causes caries or tooth decay can be transmitted from an adult to a baby through saliva. And a baby’s teeth are susceptible to tooth decay as soon as they erupt from their gums.

So, while using pacifiers for the first couple of years may be OK for your baby, you should try and break the habit early so they won’t have dental issues in the future that may warrant more visits to a dentist for babies.