I Admit it...I'm Flawed. Meet My Tongue Thrust!

Sadly, I have somewhat of a tongue thrust as a result of sucking my finger. I just learned about this last month. I mainly do it in my sleep though. Still, as it turns out, my tongue is not in the "right place" even when I am awake. Who knew there was a "right place" to begin with. I thought the tongue was supposed to be relaxed and at the bottom of my mouth. Wrong! It is supposed to be at the top of the mouth/roof area. It is supposed to be neatly tucked away up there, and should not rest on any teeth. Well, now I have to train my tongue to stay put in the roof of my mouth. The good news is I am doing quite well with my training! I started making a great effort to keep it up there like two weeks ago. The tongue is essentially a muscle, and mine has been getting a workout. When I first started training myself, my poor little tongue was actually shaking after being forced to stay put. It's like the poor thing had been lifting weights or something. However, after only two shorts weeks, it is now staying in the correct position 70-90 percent of the time. I even catch myself making sure it is "properly placed" while I'm asleep. Whenever I wake up at night, I make sure I'm not tongue thrusting. I'm doing wayyyy better than before! It will probably take a few more months before my tongue is fully trained, but I am happy to see such great progress.


It is important to ensure the thrust is taken care of now because it can basically prevent my braces from working properly. If my tongue continues to push against my teeth, it will counteract all of the work being done to properly align me front teeth...yikes! Um, my braces will cost at least $6,000 and there is now way I'm willing to interfere with my treatment.
I was also told that I will need to earn how to properly place my tongue while swallowing too. The orthodontist will show me other training techniques when I go in for my appointment. We are hoping I can get rid of this tongue thrust by doing exercises and what not. Otherwise, we might have to bring in the big guns. And by big guns, I mean getting a "tongue crib" or the "tongue spurs."

The tongue crib and tongue spurs are devices used to control a thrusting habit, but they are painful and annoying. The gadgets are normally placed in the mouth on the backside of braces of the upper teeth. I have detailed info of both items below.

The tongue crib...

This device doesn't look so bad, but it scares me. It sort of keeps your tongue tucked away behind the bars and away from your teeth. Hence the name crib. I don't think it is too painful, but it does greatly effect speech. Most people claim it ruins their speech for months at a time. Something I simply cannot afford to happen in my line of work...gulp! I've seen Youtube videos of people with these, and I can barely understand what they are saying when they speak!



Tongue Spurs...

These are placed on the back of the teeth, and they poke the tongue every time it touched the back of your teeth..ouch! These are known to be quite painful, but they effectively train the tongue to stay away from your teeth...lol.