Bad Oral Habits

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Salam Healthy Steem! 🌸 Sometimes small habits like thumb-sucking or nail-biting seem harmless, but they can damage our teeth. Let’s understand these habits early to keep our smile healthy and strong!

Name the most common bad habits we acquire as children?

Well, let’s be honest — childhood is messy. From the moment we’re born, we start picking up weird little habits. Some are cute... others? Not that much. These bad habits may begin young as in the cases of thumb-sucking or having a bottle too long. It may be cute, but your teeth are likely to be saying, Help me!

New habits find their way in as we develop. Ever seen a kid eating on a pencil as lunch? Or gnawing their nails as though they were owing them money? Yup -- those are also trouble makers. Gradually, these habits may lead to development of crooked teeth, crowding or funny bites.

Next time you find yourself or a child doing it... don t pretend you did not notice. Your smile is not worth that!

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Tell me if you've had any bad oral habits and how you acquired them.

Frankly speaking, I will not lie I also had some oral habits that were not good. It is kind of like when I was small my thumb was my best friend. I did thumb-sucking! Most likely I believed I was cool or something but nothing like it was, I was just destroying my teeth silently.

In later years, I acquired nail-biting especially when under exams. As I said, stress causes us freaky things, right? I was the real victim, but my nails, and my teeth did not have a surprise party going on either.

I am wiser now. Lesson learnt: teeth are not to fight with pencils or with nails!

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How can we eradicate these bad habits?

First things first — we need to catch the habit early. The sooner we notice thumb-sucking or nail-biting, the easier it is to kick it out. Parents, guardians — eyes open! Little habits grow into big problems if we ignore them.

The phenomenon of positive reinforcement does the trick. The cycle can be broken with small prizes, as well as with jocular graphs or even by simply saying Good job, champ!. And in some cases, a dentist visit will be what we call the wake up-call and perhaps a friendly one too.

Keep in mind - bad habits do not own us. Thereover we can never fight back!*

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How can we avoid falling into these bad habits?

It does not take a rocket-scientist to know that bad habits are fond of catching us unawares. The secret is just to remain conscious. When we know of such things as thumb-sucking, chewing on pencils, and biting our nails as being something which will precariously screw up our teeth, we are already on our way to avoiding them.

Hands must be kept busy!* Pop a stress ball instead, draw or play the games. And frankly, we sometimes just need a reminder, as your mom saying, Stop that! (Thanks, Mom).

By the turn of the day, your smile is the signature! There is no need to allow silly habits to snatch that shine!

Regards
artist1111