Protocol for Fabrication and Utilization of a Novel Chairside Technique for Interception of Tongue Thrusting Habit

The importance of early interception of the tongue-thrusting habit need not be overemphasized. Among several habit-breaking appliances, few chairside methods are available among the gamut of habit-breaking appliances available. So, a novel chairside appliance technique was employed with the use of routinely used armamentarium like Begg's bracket, lock pin, and flowable composite. This paper describes the technique and its application alongside rapid maxillary expansion (RME) appliance in a 10-year-old female patient. The chairside technique was found to be simple and acceptable to the patient. This clinical technique was employed for the fabrication of a modified habit-breaking appliance for interception of tongue thrusting habit in a 10-year-old female patient with skeletal class III maxillomandibular relationship undergoing alternate rapid maxillary expansion and constriction (ALTRAMEC) and facemask therapy for correction of skeletal class III malocclusion. Incorporation of spikes in the bonded RME framework would have significantly affected the patient's compliance. This novel design strategically helped to reduce the wire framework and provide an easy chairside procedure using simple orthodontic armamentarium for habit interception, especially in patients who are already subjected to RME appliance or who refrain from such evidently visible habit-breaking appliance.

Wali DV, Sawant H, Jawdekar A, et al. Protocol for Fabrication and Utilization of a Novel Chairside Technique for Interception of Tongue Thrusting Habit. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2026;19(2):250-254.