Abstract

Oral habits should be of primary clinical concern to orthodontists because they may cause malocclusion, and/or interfere with treatment progress. Generally habit control should be achieved prior to correction of the malocclusion in an effort to remove any etiological factors in development and maintenance of the malocclusion. It is also important for the clinician to understand that habit-breaking treatment may require an extended treatment time because habits may have been present for long periods of time and may be related to underlying psychological problems.

The present report documents the treatment of maxillary protrusion in a patient in which a thumb-sucking habit had persisted from infancy until almost age 12. Elimination of the habit was accomplished prior to correcting the malocclusion and for stability of the result. Orthodontic treatment consisted of extracting two maxillary premolars followed by full treatment with fixed appliances. Long-term postretention records show good stability of the corrected malocclusion.