Problems involved with the use of comforters

Abstract

Comforters have been associated with three areas of concern for the dental profession: rampant caries, malocclusion and gingival recession. The most serious of these, rampant caries, is associated with the practice of sweetening the comforter. Every effort should be made to eliminate this hazard to the dentition by means of dental health education for the community, especially of pregnant and nursing mothers. An open question remains on whether unsweetened dummy sucking should be promoted in order to intercept malocclusions likely to arise from digit sucking.