This study evaluated the generalization, maintenance, and negative side-effects of Habit Reversal (HR) and Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviour (DRO) in the elimination of thumb-sucking. Thirty children who sucked their thumbs or fingers excessively were randomly assigned to a HR, DRO or wait-list control group. Observation data were collected in three observation settings. Both proced...

BACKGROUND The hygiene hypothesis suggests that early-life exposure to microbial organisms reduces the risk of developing allergies. Thumb-sucking and nail-biting are common childhood habits that may increase microbial exposures. We tested the hypothesis that children who suck their thumbs or bite their nails have a lower risk of developing atopy, asthma, and hay fever in a population-based bir...

Loss of anterior teeth is a psychological trauma both for parent as well as children. Children presenting with lost anterior teeth along with thumb sucking habit require not only attention for aesthetics, function and space maintenance but also an appliance for habit breaking. Depending on many clinical and economic factors, a course of treatment is decided by the dentist in consultation with p...

Finger-thumb coordination is crucial to manual dexterity but remains incompletely understood, particularly following neurological injury such as stroke. While being controlled independently, the index finger and thumb especially must work in concert to perform a variety of tasks requiring lateral or palmar pinch. The impact of stroke on this functionally critical sensorimotor control during dyn...

OBJECTIVE To verify the prevalence and factors associated with nonnutritive sucking habits in preschool-aged children attending daycare centers and preschools in Natal, Brazil. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,190 children of both sexes, aged 3 to 5 years, enrolled in daycare centers and preschools in Natal, Brazil. Exclusion criteria were: children with cleft lip and pala...

Objective: To study of relationship between alopecia areata and finger print dermatoglyphic types in 100 patients with alopecia areata and in 100 controls. Methods: A case control analytical study was done on fingerprints of patients with alopecia areata. The control cases were older than 50 years old without any history of alopecia areata. Dermatoglyphical trials of total fingers were al...

To the Editor: A 22-year-old primigravida was admitted to our department at 16 weeks’ gestation. The medical histories of the parents were unremarkable. Transabdominal sonography indicated a cleft lip and palate (Figure 1). During scanning, the fetus was found to suck the thumb through the cleft lip and palate (Figure 2 and Video 1). Targeted sonography did not reveal any other accompanying mal...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a thumb and index finger grip might facilitate recovery from the manifestation of spatial disorientation known as the giant hand phenomenon. Sixteen pilots volunteered as subjects in an experiment that compared the effectiveness of the thumb and index finger versus the whole hand technique to overcome a visually-induced analogue of the giant hand phenomenon. Thu...