10 Dec 2012 - First tooth extraction in dental clinic

Jerlene's thumb sucking habit has been causing her two front teeth to grow "separate" way as verified by her school dentist recently.  And worse thing is, an adult tooth just beside has started growing out and causing the shaky baby tooth to overlap with one of her front tooth.  Difficult to imagine?  Anyway, it's in a mess........  As such, I brought her to the school clinic (at St Nicholas School as the dentist is there today) for the dentist to have another check.  The dentist said if Jerlene can stop her thumb sucking, there is still chance that her teeth can grow back properly since she's still young.  However, she suggested to extract the shaky baby tooth.  This will be Jerlene's first tooth extraction in a dental clinic.  I can see that she's very scared but the whole procedure only took about 1-2 mins.  No injection is required.  She rested at home today.

We had been putting those bitter gel on her thumb to prevent her from sucking but it's ineffective because after sometimes, she "fell in love" with the bitterness.......I am serious!  So now, we are thinking of putting a mitten over her hand before she goes to bed.  Hopefully, she can really stop the habit and have her teeth grow back nicely again.

So to parents with babies, if you are to choose whether pacifier or thumb sucking is better, my answer is a 100% pacifier!  Pacifier is much much easier to get rid of compared to thumb sucking.....trust me!  :-)