Oral Habits and Their Management

Oral habits have occupied the attention of psychologists, psychiatrists, and dentists for more than 100 years. Unfortunately, little knowledge of etiology is based on sound scientific data. Wolfenstein (1953) has reviewed and charted the course of advice given in the editions of the bulletin Infant Care which have appeared regularly since the first edition in 1914. She has charted how child health experts have emphasized or deemphasized the pernicious nature of thumb sucking, for example. Initially, there were strong psychoanalytic interpretations of meaning and treatment, which have now been replaced by learning theory formulations. Thumb-sucking and finger-sucking habits have received considerable attention from dentists because of their possible cause or contribution to malocclusions and deformities of the teeth and associated structures. Chandler (1878) felt that thumb sucking caused "considerable space to intervene between the upper and lower incisors, but the principle permanent irregularity that results from this habit from its continuance after the eruption of the permanent teeth" (p. 204). Similar interpretations continue even today. Bruxing and grinding habits seem to have escaped the attention of most psychologists. In dentistry, literature has largely been confined to adults who exhibit these habits and had a strong psychodynamic orientation. Tongue thrust and self-injurious behaviors to the oral cavity have received diverse attention.