Babies who are given pacifiers and are bottle-fed are twice as likely to have misaligned primary teeth as babies who are breast-fed, suggests research in the December issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Italian researchers studied detailed feeding histories and the sucking patterns of 1,099 children 3 to 5 years of age. All of the children also received oral examinations by a dentist.
More than one-third of the children had misalignments and altered occlusion. Thirteen percent of the children had an anterior open bite, and 7 percent had posterior crossbite. Children who sucked on pacifiers or thumbs were twice as likely to have misalignment as those who did not, and they were four times as likely to have an open bite.
How the children were fed in the first few months of their lives had no impact on the development of open bite. However, posterior crossbite was significantly more common in children who were bottle-fed and in those who sucked on pacifiers or thumbs. Breast-feeding seemed to protect against the development of posterior crossbite, even when children sucked on pacifiers or thumbs.
Researchers speculated that the sucking mechanism for breast- and bottle-feeding is different, and that this affects the development of the muscles of the mouth, face and palate. They also said the evidence suggests that while open bite spontaneously resolves once children stop sucking on pacifiers or thumbs, posterior cross-bite persists.
