Pre-schooler forcing an underbite

[reabies]

My DS is a couple months off turning 4. Over the last few months (I've noticed it more and more since Christmas) he is forcing his jaw into an underbite.

His teeth do sit naturally in a standard bite. He is actively pushing his jaw forward into this position. It is impacting his speech, often he will push the jaw forwards, then clench it shut and just speak through his lips. Or when he does open his jaw the sounds come out funny because of the unnatural underbite placement.

I asked at the dentist who said it wasn't a concern at this age but if it continued later on then he could have orthodontics to correct. I really REALLY do not want to get to that point, no doubt hundreds of pounds in corrective orthodontics for something completely avoidable!!

I've asked him why he does it, if it feels more comfortable, or what. I haven't got a straight answer out of him. I have taken to reminding him to relax his jaw, or put his jaw back where it should go, especially when he's talking and it's muddying his speech. I don't know if this is the right tactic though as I don't want to badger him/make him self conscious. He genuinely does it without thinking, I can prompt him to relax, he puts his jaw back where it should go, and 2 seconds later he's pushed it back out again. I can't find anything useful on the internet.

Has anyone experienced this? Did you kid grow out of it? Any strategies I can try to get him to stop doing it?

My kid does this occasionally but he's still a toddler so no idea how it'll turn out. However, his dad is more concerned as he also did it and did end up with an underbite.

@sharkstale thanks for replying, when you say a toddler how old is he? And did your partner end up needing braces/surgery to correct? I think I'm going to book him a dentist appointment for in a few months time and see what they say then.

Is he only doing this since Christmas @reabies? Did anything in particular change at this time, like Nursery or a new sibling?

@TinyMouseTheatre Thanks for replying, no he's been doing it since before Christmas. It initially started out as a concentrating face (it's quite funny, my DS is my spitting image but when he does this concentrating face it's like staring at my FIL) so I noticed it then because I was like to DH oh look he looks so much like your dad when he does that! And since it was just for concentrating I was a bit like whatever, he wasn't doing it all the time, a bit like poking your tongue out when you're thinking.

It's only since Christmas that I've been noticing the increase in frequency, not just for concentrating but almost like it's his preferred resting place now - of course he could have been ramping up the frequency before that but maybe I just didn't notice! He got a new sibling end of 2024, we moved house last spring, and he moved nursery last autumn, so don't get me wrong it was a year of big changes for him, but I didn't see this change in his jaw thing until months after the nursery move.

I tried to do it myself and found it so uncomfortable, but my mum suggested that once he got into the habit of it, maybe the stretch of it feels good to him so he just did it more and more and now it's like a cycle he can't get out of 😓