Almost every child has had the habit of finger sucking. While sucking helps babies learn to coordinate their muscle movements early on, excessive sucking can have a negative impact on their teeth. What is finger sucking Finger sucking is a manifestation of non-nutritive sucking by placing the thumb or other finger in the mouth and applying sucking force. The sucking and biting habit often occurs in infancy, often outside of nursing time or during sleep, such as finger sucking, cheek sucking or lip sucking. Infants perceive the world through sucking, and even in fetal life they already start sucking on their fingers. Although this phenomenon gradually disappears with age. However, if a child is still used to sucking fingers after the age of 3, it means that the child has a behavioral drift that needs to be corrected by parents in time. Causes of finger-sucking in children 1. Insufficient parental care: parents are too busy at work, thus neglecting to accompany their children, leading to the persistence of finger-sucking behavior. 2, regulation of bad emotions: children are not good at expressing themselves, and when they are excited or nervous, they instinctively suck their fingers to get a sense of security and satisfaction. 3.Diversion: Hunger, illness and other factors can make children feel physically uncomfortable and make them feel relieved by sucking their fingers. If the above problems are not paid attention to in time, it is likely to lead to the formation of the bad habit of finger sucking, which may endanger the normal growth of teeth and lead to malformation of teeth and even affect the growth of jaw surface. Seize the orthodontic “golden” period, do not let finger-sucking affect the child’s “face” The teething period (3-5 years old) and the replacement period (6-12 years old): it is a good time to intervene in advance the malformed teeth that seriously hinder the growth and development, such as the milk teeth retrusion, so as not to affect the child’s jaw and facial development. Development. 12-16 years old, usually 12-14 years old for boys and 11-13 years old for girls: the golden age for orthodontics in children, when most of the malocclusion problems can be treated. At this time, children’s permanent tooth roots are gradually developed, and they are at the peak of growth and development, so they can get twice the result with half the effort for most orthodontic treatment. However, there are individual differences in the growth and development of each child, and each child needs to be treated individually. Finger-sucking is not harmful for a short time, but it actually affects the baby’s “face” in a subtle way, so parents should correct the finger-sucking habit as soon as possible to add points to the baby’s face.