BABY BOTTLE, BREASTFEEDING AND PACIFIER AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH ORAL HEALTH

As soon as the first milk teeth begin to erupt, usually between six and eight months, it is convenient to take our baby to your first visit with the pediatric dentist to confirm that everything is going well.

If so, We will check with the dentist periodically up to six yearsapproximately when the baby teeth have begun to fall and a first review with the orthodontist to verify that there is no oral problem that needs to be corrected early.

Despite the little importance that many people can give it, maintain proper hygiene and healthy oral habits during the first months of life of our children can prevent the emergence of many future problems.

Juan Carlos Pérez Varela, president of the Spanish Society of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (SEDO) insists on the importance of parents following simple recommendations to prevent certain children's habits from leading to a malocclusion in the adult stage.

And among these recommendations would be those that refer to the first stage of our children's lives, and that are related to breastfeeding, bottle feeding and pacifier use.

Breastfeeding, beneficial for oral health

The benefits of breastfeeding are well known to all, although perhaps not everyone knows that Among the many benefits that breastfeeding brings are also those related to oral health.

In Babies and more When to remove the pacifier to avoid oral problems due to prolonged use?

According to SEDO, these are the oral benefits that the nursing baby has:

Breastfeeding contributes positively to the development of the masticatory system
It prevents, to a large extent, that they are acquired prolonged oral habits that deform the mouth, such as sucking your finger, a habit that can affect the development of the maxillary bones, the position of permanent teeth and cause bad occlusion.
Prevents dentomaxillofacial anomalies, because it has been proven that sucking the baby's nipple turns out to be the best exercise for proper growth and development of his mouth and jaw.
Research suggests that children who have been breastfed subsequently have fewer malocclusions than bottle-fed ones From the beginning, which translates into less orthodontic treatments in the future.

In addition, and as we have seen on other occasions, it is important to emphasize that it is not true that prolonged breastfeeding is associated with the appearance of caries, but that if they appear it will be due to a cumulation of factors that have nothing to do with made to breastfeed.

Baby bottle, watch out for certain habits!

In case of using a bottle, SEDO recommends that the baby not get used to sleeping with him, or use it as a pacifier, as this could cause the appearance of the so-called "bottle caries".

Although we have already commented on what advice we can follow to avoid bottle caries, SEDO recommends that if the baby has already acquired the habit of falling asleep by sucking the bottle, we should try to clean his mouth and gums well after taking it.

In Babies and more Breastfeeding prepares the child for chewing and benefits its proper oral development In addition, from the Spanish Society of Orthodontics insist on remembering that the best way to prevent dentomaxillofacial anomalies from an early age is to opt for breastfeeding

"Breastfeeding is a stimulus that favors the lower jaw in the so-called first physiological advance of occlusion. On the contrary, with the bottle the child does not close his lips with such force and they take the form of" O ", does not occur oral emptiness, the action of the tongue is difficult (which moves forward against the gum to regulate the excessive flow of milk) and there is less excitation of the oral musculature

Pacifier, it is essential to remove it on time

It has been seen that, used correctly, the pacifier has many benefits for babies, since it reduces the incidence of sudden infant death, gives them security and confidence and serves as comfort.

However, experts also warn that non-nutritive sucking of the pacifier could cause the lower central teeth to gradually deviate inward, while those in the same plane but in the upper jaw, separate and protrude outward .

Over time, the fangs would end up bumping into each other, causing both rows of teeth not to close properly (what is known as "open bite"). In addition, the sucking action would put into operation a series of muscles of the face that, together with the position of the tongue, would contribute to the upper and lower lines losing their parallelism, causing the "cross bite".

For avoid the appearance of all these problems, SEDO recommends that the size of the pacifier be adapted to the baby's mouth and that its use be abandoned before two or three years, age that however pediatricians anticipate at 12 months.

"An open bite caused by the use of the pacifier could be corrected if it is removed at two years. If not, the open bite could evolve to a skeletal open bite, more serious and difficult to correct" - they emphasize from the Society Spanish of Orthodontics.

Therefore, experts insist on the importance of doing a complete oral study when the child has reached six or seven years, in order to assess whether any of these malformations have occurred and if so, seek an immediate solution before the effects are aggravated:

"An uncorrected cross bite can evolve into an asymmetric growth of the face. Atypical swallowing not treated in time will lead to an open bite that is difficult to correct. Uncorrected mouth breathing can cause severe malocclusion in a future with growth. vertical of the face… That is why from the main orthodontic associations we recommend studying and correcting early "

Therefore, once again we insist on importance of instilling correct oral health habits from childhood, to prevent future problems, without forgetting to take our children frequently to the pediatric dentist who will be the one who can best advise and guide us.