Tag Archives: mixed dentition

Thumb Sucking and Development of Teeth

Suckling vs. sucking

Suckling

Suckling is a normal physiological reflex in infants, which consists of small nibbling movements of the lips. The movements stimulate the smooth muscles surrounding the milk ducts of the lactating mother to contract and squirt milk into the infant’s mouth. When the milk is squirted into the mouth, it is only necessary for the infant to groove the tongue to allow the milk to flow back into the throat. The tongue, however, must be placed front to contact with the lower lip, so that the milk is in fact deposited on the tongue. The tongue-to-lip apposition is so common that it is usually adopted at rest, and it is frequently possible to gently move the infant’s lower lip and notice that the tongue tip moves with it, almost as if they were glued together. The suckling reflex normally disappears during the first year of life.

Sucking

Nearly all modern infants engage in some sort of habitual non-nutritive sucking– thumb- or finger-sucking or sucking of a similarly shaped object. A vast majority do so during the period from 6 months to 2 years or later. Continue reading

Know Your Children Teeth As They Grow

Teeth eruption @ tischlerdental.com

Teeth eruption @ tischlerdental.com

We have two sets of teeth. Initially, we have 20 baby teeth. Baby teeth are also known as primary teeth. These baby teeth will exfoliate and be replaced by 32 permanent teeth. There is no replacement if we lost our permanent teeth. Some people may have more or less teeth compared to the norm. This occurrence is usually genetically inherited.

Tooth eruption refers to emergence of tooth from its developmental position in the jaw to its functional position in the oral cavity. A tooth erupts when its root starts to grow. As its root becomes longer, the force pushes the tooth out of the gums. Continue reading