A dentist, Dr Basil Tochukwu, says thumb sucking in children causes skeletal and dental malformation.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Jos that thumb sucking  could change the pattern of dental development and also the jaw formation.

He advised parents to stop their children and wards from sucking early, as the act could distort the child’s dental formation.

According to him, parents who have children that suck and have tried to stop them to no avail should bring such children to the dentist to help them to stop the child from having deformed jaw formation.

Tochukwu, also a chief executive officer of a dental clinic, noted that some habits such as opening the cork of soft drink with the teeth was detrimental as the act would lead to the breaking of the tooth or teeth.

He revealed that some habits such as drinking coffee and smoking tobacco would lead to staining of the teeth with caffeine and nicotine.

According to him, teeth scaling and polishing takes care of plaque and calculus that causes gingivitis in children and periodontitis in adults, which eats up the gum and the gum supporting tissues which causes the tooth to fall off.

He called for scaling and polishing of the teeth once yearly to remove the calculus and plaques.

He said that to maintain proper oral health, it was advisable that individuals visit the dentist at least twice a year “as the mouth serves as the gateway to the body.”