Comforter (「ゴム」乳首) ノ乳齒穹ニ及ボス影響ニ就テ

抄録

Until quite recently, it has been regarded in pediatric circles that the continuous use of the comforter may be very harmful to children, owing to various reasons such as the continuous and superfluous flow of saliva, due to the comforter, which may lead to a disturbance in appetite during feeding- time, and the lack of disinfection has also been regarded as making the comforter a means of conveying bacteria into the mouth to cause different sorts of stomatitis.
But when we look at this problem from an orthodontic point of view, an additional grievance, which may be classed as an etiological factor of malocclusion, should be added to these.
Hardly any investigations on this special line have as yet appeared in Japan, but in Europe and the United States quite a few has been interested in this subject and results of their investigations were reported.
In 1930, Dr. S. Dreyfus in Switzerland wrote an article entitled “Infant Feeding”, the contents of which may be of some interest to us. He states that bony deformation may result from the use of the ordinary teat in artificial feeding, through compressing the teat with the tongue (See Fig.1) . The effects of this action of the tongue would be to project the anterior part of the maxilla in V-shaped form, and to raise the median part of the palate.It would also produce a protrusion of the maxillary incisor, leading to an ogival or gothic palate. By the elevation of the palate, the palato-frontal distance is diminished, which in consequence diminishes the height of the nasal cavities and leads to a deviation of the septum narrowing the nesal cavities as well. Insufficient work of the lips, according to him, results in flabby lips, or in their atrophy.
He adds to say that the insufficient exercise of suprahyoid and masticatory muscles causes a retardation of the mandible, and in consequence the teeth do not find the normal space to arrange themselves, producing the crowd of the mandibular anterior teeth. Also by reason of want of exercises of the masticatory muscles, the upper part of the face, and the part corresponding to the skull and the mandible, where these muscles have their insertions, undergo delays in their development.
The mechanicle influences of the comforter may be regarded as the same as those of the ordinary teat during artificial feeding, but it must be borne in mind that the comforter is in far more continuous use than the teat and therefore it is easily conceived that much damage should be done.
Fortunately, we had a chance to make statistical investigations in children using the comforter and the results of the examination were as follows : —
1) Most of the children using the comforter are found to be artificially fed.
2) The use of the comforter may be regarded as an etiological factor, leading to deformities such as elevation of the palate, V-shaped narrow arch, protrusion of the upper incisors, open bite, flabby lips, and mouthbreathing.
3) Bony deformity is clearly observed, even when the comforter is used, preceding the eruption of the deciduous teeth.
4) Early discontinuance of the use of the comforter will in most cases act as a corrective measure to malocclusion.