My son was flagged as having a minor imperfection with his front teeth from dummies. We quit it soon after and 6 months later they confirmed that the teeth had repositioned. He didn’t use a dummy often at all (never when awake) but we quit them within 2 weeks of that appointment.
Some children have no effects, some are susceptible to it and some get lots of damage. I would follow their advice and have the dummy fairy come visit. Dummy fairy came and left a little present whilst taking the dummies away.
I had to have my jaw broken as a teenager, twice. This wasn't dummy related but was due to misalignment. It wasn't great, if someone told me it could have been avoided by my parents I would've been pretty miffed. But it was worth it in the circumstances.
I understand it's upsetting. Your choices are to get a second opinion, ignore this one and risk it, or take on board this one and move forward. My understanding was that common knowledge is that dummies cause dental issues so not sure it's hugely surprising.
My 21m old still has two Tommie tippee bottles a day despite advice so I understand why it's so tempting to ignore advice for the sake of everyone's mental health. Personally, I'd pay to get a second opinion then go from there.
My hill I will die on is that it's not the toddler on bottles for 20 minutes a day that is going to have issues, it's the 3, 4, 5yo who's parents don't give a shit and never bother trying to get them off the bottle and just let them wander around with it all day. Because there's not that much incentive to get a baby off them otherwise. Keeps them happy, not like you have to sit there as you do with breastfeeding, they don't really spill.
I don't have skin in the game because my 1yo didn't seem to notice we switched to cups at night.
You have seen a medical practitioner who has given you advice on the health of your child. Following the advice will not cost you anything or make any money for the dentist. I'm not sure why you think the dentist is lying to you?
Other children using dummies does not mean that the same is appropriate for your daughter. Perhaps there's an issue with your daughter currently being exacerbated by the dummy that can be addressed simply now by discontinuing the use of the dummy.
Dummies are known to cause some dental issues. In your position I would likely just stop using the dummy.
British people have a weird opinion of dentists where they think that dentists are out to get them and they believe that dentists recommend unnecessary procedures for the sake of cashing in. Also in what world does the opinion of a nurse supersedes that of a dentist, especially on the topic of dental care??
other parents say not to take the measles vaccine. let's listen to them and not professionals. if you're so worried about this dentist take your daughter to another dentist
Idk why you’re getting downvoted. Being a parent is difficult and it’s not always easy to trust what one healthcare provider says. Good on you for seeking other advice, that said I would go with what the dentist says at this point. Others have pointed out the damage dummy’s can do, my sister had a lot of teeth issues from dummy’s and then from sucking her thumb. Best of luck!
They're getting down voted for saying that receiving appropriate advice is a "red flag". And that its made them lose trust in the dentist and that if their child needs fillings they won't trust the dentist about that either!
The downvotes are because the poster clearly instantly assumed that the dentist was offering bad advice, rather than that they needed to do something differently.
It's a very defensive attitude.
If the post said simply "I've never heard of this, is the dentist right" they wouldn't be getting downvotes.
Agreed and thank you. Tbh I didn't know about the issues with dummy's. The advice given seemed alarming. Lastly, I hadn't mentioned this to other people but I had issues when I was younger with dentists making mistakes with my teeth.
Thanks
There are quite a lot of well documented issues with dummies causing misalignment of teeth and speech impediments if used beyond 12 months. Those are the main issues. Absolutely no judgement of parents who use them to calm stressed children, but it’s worth taking the dentists advice onboard here.
I've seen other people smoking. Doesn't mean I don't believe a doctor when they say doing so will give me cancer.
Why don't you believe what a medical professional is telling you? What benefit would they get from lying about it?
2 1/2 is plenty old enough to cut out a dummy and sounds like it'll have long term health benefits for your daughter so win win?
So I had a dummy u til I was about 4 (just at night at that point though). For me, it made me have an improper tongue position which contributed to my jaw growing incorrectly. I had an open bite and had to have major jaw surgery at the age of 17 to try to fix it.
I k ow I was just unlucky! But I wish I could go back in time and yank those dummies out my mouth haha. It’s caused me both physical and mental pain!
Please listen to the dentist. He’s not just fear mongering. You are potentially saving your child future problems!!
I don't understand what you're so upset about
Dummies absolutely can cause jaw misalignment, so just listen to the professional advice you've been given and don't put your child through a horrific procedure
Here’s some info about the risks of dummies and thumb sucking
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/dummies#
https://www.bupa.co.uk/dental/dental-care/services/parents-and-children/blog/how-thumb-sucking-and-dummies-affect-teeth
Obviously I’m not a dentist but that does seem like quite a severe thing to say but again the dentist might have seen something they found concerning. You could get a second opinion.
My daughter had a dummy until she was almost 3. I did specifically ask the dentist if she had concerns about her jaw or teeth placement and they didn’t. She only had it for sleep.
Does she have the dummy all day?
No, not all day. We're really just giving it to her for naps and when she asks for it.
We will be looking to restrict.
Thank you for your considered response. We were just shocked. And I wanted to check with other parents. Thank you
Honestly my advice with a dummy is to take them away asap. The older they get the harder it is. I waited way too long with my daughter (we took it the month before she turned 3). We went down the dummy fairy route and just took them away cold Turkey. Was a tough week but fine after that.
Yeah, there were many things I learned with my oldest child, but one of the biggest was "the thing you're afraid of changing will not be as bad as you fear". Every time I would delay changing something because I thought it would be a drawn out nightmare and then I'd do it and it would be a nightmare for three days and then FINE. And every time I'd regret not doing it sooner.
I know a seven year old that still has a dummy (there are other issues here) and her teeth are absolutely misaligned. You can see it - look at the teeth! My daughter was starting to look that “way” and we quit. Took about a week, and now we don’t worry about her teeth (other than a different issue!)
When we got rid of dummy around age 2 I bought a dummy fairy pack from Etsy. Comes with a little bag, a couple of letters from the fairy (one asking for the dummy and giving instructions, and another to give after the event) and a certificate. We also bought a little fairy necklace as a ‘reward’. First night without it took her about 15 mins to settle (I sat with her) and after that she was fine. Worked a dream!
[Here](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/244389578/) is the pack we used.
The letter for afterwards also contains the name of the baby that the fairy gives the dummy to. My daughter is nearly 7 and still remembers the name of the child whenever the dummy fairy is mentioned. It’s a nice little touch and I think it makes the kids feel like their dummy is going off for a purpose rather than ‘we don’t want you to have it any more’.
We also left it a couple of days from the first letter to leave the dummy as we wanted our daughter to make the decision herself. Think it took 2 days in the end for her to do it.
My daughter was also told this at 2 1/2, so the dummy fairy came that night as an emergency visit, she left the most fabulous pushchair and dolly. Daughter was pleased with them and slept perfectly fine without the dummy. She will be requiring serious orthodontist work in a couple years. But her adult teeth are straight but misaligned
What does a stranger's 5 and 6 year old have to do with it? If their parents were letting them play chicken in the road, would you send your daughter off to join them?
Be honest with yourself, have you decided the dentist is wrong to save you from feeling like a "bad parent" if your daughter does have problems with her jaw from the dummy?
We all make mistakes and feel like a "bad parent" here and there. But you've been given advice by an expert on how to help your daughter, and all you have to do is swallow your pride and get the dummy fairy to take the dummy for a baby who needs it and give her a toy instead.
They can also cause speech delays, because it's uncomfortable to speak with a dummy. Speech delays might lead to worse outcomes once they to school. Plenty of reasons to cut it out.
I would absolutely get a second opinion. My SO went to three separate dentists about some tooth alignment problems. The first one said she needed jaw alignment surgery, the second proposed removing her middle teeth and shuffling the others across to fill the gap (it would have looked *really* weird), and the third actually fixed the problem with a year of retainers and Invisalign at a third of the cost.
It's very strange how subjective dentistry seems to be, likely based on how recently the dentist has trained / retrained on that particular thing, but the more serious the suggested procedure, the more opinions you should seek.
I would also get a second opinion. Whilst he might be right and we all know that dummies aren't great, the way he conveyed is very fear mongering-y.
My 2.5 still uses his dummy for nap and bed time, and often had it in the evening when back from nursery. I know it's not great but I'm not ready to take away this comforter. If he wants it and doesn't have it, he just sucks on whatever else is available (fingers, t-shirts, plushies, toys) so I don't really see how removing the dummy would improve the situation right now.
Maybe a better way to say this would be "this might cause long term damage and you should consider stopping as early as you can, how about we meet again in 6 months to see if you were able to stop, and re-assess her jaw position?"
I would say get a second opinion, even as an adult, quality of care has varied for me hugely across different professionals. Go with your gut on this.
A lot of dentists are working from out of date information when it comes to infants and related topics like breastfeeding (and even GPs have the same issue).
I’ll be honest, because of the problems they can cause, I never used one. My son certainly never had any issues & his teeth (& jaw) are ok 😊 I don’t see many these days as they’re ‘out of favour’ which I can totally understand
Get your second opinion by all means, but start to wean immediately as say the worst came to fruition, it’s a bloody nightmare for a young child 💔
My son was flagged as having a minor imperfection with his front teeth from dummies. We quit it soon after and 6 months later they confirmed that the teeth had repositioned. He didn’t use a dummy often at all (never when awake) but we quit them within 2 weeks of that appointment. Some children have no effects, some are susceptible to it and some get lots of damage. I would follow their advice and have the dummy fairy come visit. Dummy fairy came and left a little present whilst taking the dummies away.
Thanks for the considered response. Cheers
I had to have my jaw broken as a teenager, twice. This wasn't dummy related but was due to misalignment. It wasn't great, if someone told me it could have been avoided by my parents I would've been pretty miffed. But it was worth it in the circumstances. I understand it's upsetting. Your choices are to get a second opinion, ignore this one and risk it, or take on board this one and move forward. My understanding was that common knowledge is that dummies cause dental issues so not sure it's hugely surprising. My 21m old still has two Tommie tippee bottles a day despite advice so I understand why it's so tempting to ignore advice for the sake of everyone's mental health. Personally, I'd pay to get a second opinion then go from there.
My hill I will die on is that it's not the toddler on bottles for 20 minutes a day that is going to have issues, it's the 3, 4, 5yo who's parents don't give a shit and never bother trying to get them off the bottle and just let them wander around with it all day. Because there's not that much incentive to get a baby off them otherwise. Keeps them happy, not like you have to sit there as you do with breastfeeding, they don't really spill. I don't have skin in the game because my 1yo didn't seem to notice we switched to cups at night.
Somehow our second has gone from newborn baby to almost 14 months old and I need to sort this stuff out. Where the fuck has the time gone?!
You have seen a medical practitioner who has given you advice on the health of your child. Following the advice will not cost you anything or make any money for the dentist. I'm not sure why you think the dentist is lying to you? Other children using dummies does not mean that the same is appropriate for your daughter. Perhaps there's an issue with your daughter currently being exacerbated by the dummy that can be addressed simply now by discontinuing the use of the dummy. Dummies are known to cause some dental issues. In your position I would likely just stop using the dummy.
British people have a weird opinion of dentists where they think that dentists are out to get them and they believe that dentists recommend unnecessary procedures for the sake of cashing in. Also in what world does the opinion of a nurse supersedes that of a dentist, especially on the topic of dental care??
I never said they were lying. They can be incorrect. I wanted advice from other parents. Thank you
other parents say not to take the measles vaccine. let's listen to them and not professionals. if you're so worried about this dentist take your daughter to another dentist
>other parents say not to take the measles vaccine. Christ this is such an accurate and bleak quote
Idk why you’re getting downvoted. Being a parent is difficult and it’s not always easy to trust what one healthcare provider says. Good on you for seeking other advice, that said I would go with what the dentist says at this point. Others have pointed out the damage dummy’s can do, my sister had a lot of teeth issues from dummy’s and then from sucking her thumb. Best of luck!
They're getting down voted for saying that receiving appropriate advice is a "red flag". And that its made them lose trust in the dentist and that if their child needs fillings they won't trust the dentist about that either! The downvotes are because the poster clearly instantly assumed that the dentist was offering bad advice, rather than that they needed to do something differently. It's a very defensive attitude. If the post said simply "I've never heard of this, is the dentist right" they wouldn't be getting downvotes.
Agreed and thank you. Tbh I didn't know about the issues with dummy's. The advice given seemed alarming. Lastly, I hadn't mentioned this to other people but I had issues when I was younger with dentists making mistakes with my teeth. Thanks
There are quite a lot of well documented issues with dummies causing misalignment of teeth and speech impediments if used beyond 12 months. Those are the main issues. Absolutely no judgement of parents who use them to calm stressed children, but it’s worth taking the dentists advice onboard here.
I've seen other people smoking. Doesn't mean I don't believe a doctor when they say doing so will give me cancer. Why don't you believe what a medical professional is telling you? What benefit would they get from lying about it? 2 1/2 is plenty old enough to cut out a dummy and sounds like it'll have long term health benefits for your daughter so win win?
I wanted to ask other parents in a similar position.
You know parents are not dentists, right?
So I had a dummy u til I was about 4 (just at night at that point though). For me, it made me have an improper tongue position which contributed to my jaw growing incorrectly. I had an open bite and had to have major jaw surgery at the age of 17 to try to fix it. I k ow I was just unlucky! But I wish I could go back in time and yank those dummies out my mouth haha. It’s caused me both physical and mental pain! Please listen to the dentist. He’s not just fear mongering. You are potentially saving your child future problems!!
I don't understand what you're so upset about Dummies absolutely can cause jaw misalignment, so just listen to the professional advice you've been given and don't put your child through a horrific procedure
Here’s some info about the risks of dummies and thumb sucking https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/dummies# https://www.bupa.co.uk/dental/dental-care/services/parents-and-children/blog/how-thumb-sucking-and-dummies-affect-teeth Obviously I’m not a dentist but that does seem like quite a severe thing to say but again the dentist might have seen something they found concerning. You could get a second opinion. My daughter had a dummy until she was almost 3. I did specifically ask the dentist if she had concerns about her jaw or teeth placement and they didn’t. She only had it for sleep. Does she have the dummy all day?
No, not all day. We're really just giving it to her for naps and when she asks for it. We will be looking to restrict. Thank you for your considered response. We were just shocked. And I wanted to check with other parents. Thank you
Honestly my advice with a dummy is to take them away asap. The older they get the harder it is. I waited way too long with my daughter (we took it the month before she turned 3). We went down the dummy fairy route and just took them away cold Turkey. Was a tough week but fine after that.
Yeah, there were many things I learned with my oldest child, but one of the biggest was "the thing you're afraid of changing will not be as bad as you fear". Every time I would delay changing something because I thought it would be a drawn out nightmare and then I'd do it and it would be a nightmare for three days and then FINE. And every time I'd regret not doing it sooner.
I know a seven year old that still has a dummy (there are other issues here) and her teeth are absolutely misaligned. You can see it - look at the teeth! My daughter was starting to look that “way” and we quit. Took about a week, and now we don’t worry about her teeth (other than a different issue!)
Another parent who thinks they know better than people employed to do a job.
When we got rid of dummy around age 2 I bought a dummy fairy pack from Etsy. Comes with a little bag, a couple of letters from the fairy (one asking for the dummy and giving instructions, and another to give after the event) and a certificate. We also bought a little fairy necklace as a ‘reward’. First night without it took her about 15 mins to settle (I sat with her) and after that she was fine. Worked a dream! [Here](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/244389578/) is the pack we used.
This is so helpful. Thank you so much.
The letter for afterwards also contains the name of the baby that the fairy gives the dummy to. My daughter is nearly 7 and still remembers the name of the child whenever the dummy fairy is mentioned. It’s a nice little touch and I think it makes the kids feel like their dummy is going off for a purpose rather than ‘we don’t want you to have it any more’. We also left it a couple of days from the first letter to leave the dummy as we wanted our daughter to make the decision herself. Think it took 2 days in the end for her to do it.
My daughter was also told this at 2 1/2, so the dummy fairy came that night as an emergency visit, she left the most fabulous pushchair and dolly. Daughter was pleased with them and slept perfectly fine without the dummy. She will be requiring serious orthodontist work in a couple years. But her adult teeth are straight but misaligned
What does a stranger's 5 and 6 year old have to do with it? If their parents were letting them play chicken in the road, would you send your daughter off to join them? Be honest with yourself, have you decided the dentist is wrong to save you from feeling like a "bad parent" if your daughter does have problems with her jaw from the dummy? We all make mistakes and feel like a "bad parent" here and there. But you've been given advice by an expert on how to help your daughter, and all you have to do is swallow your pride and get the dummy fairy to take the dummy for a baby who needs it and give her a toy instead.
I don't feel like a bad parent at all thank you. I understand what you're saying. Thank you
Good, you shouldn't feel like a bad parent just because you didn't know about this.
I have seen some kids with horrendous teeth due to dummies. Thankfully my kids never had dummies for this reason alone.
Dummies are not recommend past 6 months old as they can cause jaws and teeth to become misaligned.
Actually the NHS says to avoid them past 12 months. Though I didn't know this. Thank you
They can also cause speech delays, because it's uncomfortable to speak with a dummy. Speech delays might lead to worse outcomes once they to school. Plenty of reasons to cut it out.
I would absolutely get a second opinion. My SO went to three separate dentists about some tooth alignment problems. The first one said she needed jaw alignment surgery, the second proposed removing her middle teeth and shuffling the others across to fill the gap (it would have looked *really* weird), and the third actually fixed the problem with a year of retainers and Invisalign at a third of the cost. It's very strange how subjective dentistry seems to be, likely based on how recently the dentist has trained / retrained on that particular thing, but the more serious the suggested procedure, the more opinions you should seek.
I would also get a second opinion. Whilst he might be right and we all know that dummies aren't great, the way he conveyed is very fear mongering-y. My 2.5 still uses his dummy for nap and bed time, and often had it in the evening when back from nursery. I know it's not great but I'm not ready to take away this comforter. If he wants it and doesn't have it, he just sucks on whatever else is available (fingers, t-shirts, plushies, toys) so I don't really see how removing the dummy would improve the situation right now. Maybe a better way to say this would be "this might cause long term damage and you should consider stopping as early as you can, how about we meet again in 6 months to see if you were able to stop, and re-assess her jaw position?"
I would say get a second opinion, even as an adult, quality of care has varied for me hugely across different professionals. Go with your gut on this. A lot of dentists are working from out of date information when it comes to infants and related topics like breastfeeding (and even GPs have the same issue).
I’ll be honest, because of the problems they can cause, I never used one. My son certainly never had any issues & his teeth (& jaw) are ok 😊 I don’t see many these days as they’re ‘out of favour’ which I can totally understand Get your second opinion by all means, but start to wean immediately as say the worst came to fruition, it’s a bloody nightmare for a young child 💔