Do dentists give their children dummies?

[coldandflu]

I'm wonderimg if dummies are that bad.

I'm back on the dummy 22 months. It's an ortho one.

You could always ask your dentist, I’m sure they’d be honest about the issues of dummies

He said it's bad

The one I know didn’t and her DD sucks her thumb😂

The worst 😞

I know two, and no they didn’t. My 4 never had dummies because I was so worried how I would wean them off them!

The main issue with dummies is constant use. As long as youre strict with usage and only use it for naps rather than letting DC have it in their mouth all the time the risks are fairly small.

My dentist was incredibly rude to me about my son sucking his thumb at 14 months (he was only there for his sister's appointment). I left in tears and changed dentist. But I did stop him sucking his thumb by 2. Tbh I'd have probably sucked up the ortho bill of it has let me have a year of sleep. Without the thumb he was up every hour.

Not a dentist but I gave mine dummies to stop thumb sucking. Dummies can be removed, thumb sucking is almost impossible habit to break

I was told that dummies were really bad for teeth and my friend’s daughter ended up with badly buckled teeth after being allowed a dummy for years. I didn’t buy one for any of my children and they managed fine. They learn to sooth in other ways. I think it’s just another crutch that they don’t need and is something to have to wean them off later. I don’t really understand why parents start it.

This is what our dentist said, ortho dummy is best. My kids would spit them out and thumbs instead. Both have had braces as teens.

Thumb sucking is not hard to break! Also you don't really get constant thumb sucking the way you do with dummies because most kids want to use both their hands to play, and only suck their thumb when tired. With a dummy a kid can play, ride a scooter, do a cartwheel and never need to remove it. Dummies are gross, they look horrid and you get kids who literally have one in ALL DAY. Sure you can take a dummy away but ive lost track of the number of kids who have them stashed everywhere, or who will steal a dummy off another baby, or who simply suck a thumb/blanket/cuff instead.

We gave a dummy from birth and removed it with the sleep regression at 4m. It worked perfectly for us.

when you say ‘back on the dummy’ did you take it away and then give it again?

We never did dummies and I wish we had! My oldest had bad reflux and I now realise he might have slept with one (apparently it helps, I didn’t hear this until afterwards), and my youngest sucked her thumb and just would not stop - we’d take it out every time we saw it but she’d suck it all night. Now her teeth are uneven on one side!

I’m a dental nurse and husband is a dentist and our 18 mkt n has one. We’d love it to just be for sleep But it’s just so handy during the day! Our first daughter didn’t have anything!

This my thought. Both me and my husband have had braces and neither of us had the dummy, I’d rather an easy life tbh

Dummies are not good for encouraging communication; babbling being the first stage of language.

They're probably better than thumbs. My son was a thumb sucker, braces as a teen.
Life would have been so much easier and cheaper (£££ retainers for life) if he had taken to the dummies.

We used ortho dummies and stopped at 18 months, no issues. I’ve seen two different dentists and they’ve both said dummy use is fine before the age of 3 as long as it’s not used constantly.

Yes, definitely impossible. That’s why you see so many adults around sucking their thumbs… 🙄🙄🙄

If anyone wants to break thumb sucking. We did it with Elastoplast finger strips. They're very long plasters that wrap round several times and are hard to get off. We bought about 200 of them and ds had them on every day for about 5 weeks. Changed whenever they got wet or dirty or covered in food (so a lot!)

You hear all sorts of horror stories about dummies but my son absolutely loved his & I didn't get it off him at night until he was 4 (limited day use from age 2). No speech issues, no braces, no funny shaped teeth & he's 18 years old. What I did have was a baby who did not sleep well & the dummy really helped.

I’m a dentist, I gave all 3 of mine a dummy. Only number 3 wouldn’t take it. They all stopped around 2.5 years old. I think probably as long as they’ve not still got them by age 6 when permanent dentition coming through I’ve not really seen ill effects. Not many kids are still using a dummy after age 4 really.
Thumb suckers…. I’ve seen a few problems there needing ortho treatment

No they don't. And neither do speech therapists. They are bad for both dentition and speech. Some children will not be effected, but many are.

I gave my youngest a dummy because she had silent reflux and it helped her. She had it whenever she wanted but when she started toddling around and she dropped it I would stick it in the kitchen drawer out of sight.

When she turned 2 she went through a phase of wanting it all the time so I let her walk about with it so it didnt become the attractive forbidden thing but again, if she left it lying around I put it in the drawer.

By the age of 3 she stopped bothering with it and after a couple of months left in the drawer I binned it/them.

In contrast, I wasn't given a dummy as a baby and tucked 2 fingers until I moved in with my boyfriend age 19.

My middle daughter didn't have a dummy nor sucked her thumb or fingers.

My eldest had a dummy which she was attached to but i gave it to the baby reindeer at xmas in exchange for a present. She then went on to suck her thumb and still does occasionally at 22 years old.

Basically...all kids have different sulking needs and it probably makes little difference whether you help them with it or not.

I'm 45 now and although my finger sucking ended age 19 I still twist up shoelaces (to stop me twisting my hair) and like fabric pressed against my upper lip when I'm relaxing. Anytime I try to just sit still I end up biting my nails/fidgeting/plaiting my hair etc.

I think you’ll find yes, a lot of them do!