The Effect of Thumb Sucking Habit on Childrens Dentomaxillofacial Development: A Systematic Review

Oral bad habits are one of the major etiologic factors which will leads to malformation in dento- facial structures, teeth malposition, respiratory disorder, difficulty speaking, muscle imbalances, and face psychological problems. Thumb sucking is the most common oral bad habit in children that can be grouped under a list of habits known as non-nutritive sucking habits. The reported incidence of thumb sucking is between 13% and 100% in some societies. The oral habit may continue to 3–4 years and will stop automatically. If the habit continues whilst the permanent dentition is becoming established, a diverse variety of approaches include advice, removal of the comforting object, fitting an orthodontic appliance to interfere with the habit, or behavior modification techniques are needed. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of thumb sucking habit on children’s dentomaxillofacial development. Data collection was carried out by searching the literature on the article search site, Pubmed, which was published from 2011 to 2020, the search was carried out in December 2020. The full-text articles in the remaining 46 articles were re-analyzed and excluded 36 articles and produced 10 articles which were then entered into the analysis. Based on this systematic literature review shows that thumb sucking can cause an impact on the muscles and facial development patterns in children, as well as impaired growth and development in the dentomaxillofacial.