Overview
- Online sellers in China report moving thousands of oversized pacifiers each month at prices ranging from about ¥10 ($1.40) to ¥500 ($70).
- Users share TikTok clips claiming stress relief, better sleep, enhanced focus, smoking-cessation support and ADHD management despite the lack of clinical studies.
- Orthodontists and dentists warn prolonged pacifier use can trigger open bite, altered swallow patterns, tongue thrust and jaw strain that often require orthodontic treatment.
- A Sichuan dentist cautioned that sleeping with an adult pacifier risks airway obstruction with more than three hours of daily use leading to noticeable tooth shifts within a year.
- Psychologists characterize the practice as a regressive self-soothing habit that masks anxiety and recommend therapy, gum or fidget tools as safer alternatives.