In most cases, children stop thumb-sucking between the ages of 2 and 4, however thumb-sucking that persists beyond this age can affect teeth. It can cause the permanent teeth to erupt further forwards or backwards from where they should erupt, which can affect the bite and appearance. If you are worried about thumb-sucking, at Terrigal Dental we are more than happy to work with you and your child to create a program to help them stop this habit.