I hate, loathe and detest pacifiers. I do not allow them anymore at all. I see parents forcing the darn things into their kids mouths to shut them up and it drives me crazy.
It's the PARENTS who train their child into believing they can't live without it.
My mother is retired, but worked as an assistant to the oral sugeon at the local hospital. They would get children with problems sent to them from local dentists. The number of kids with pallete and teeth problems due to pacifiers was amazing. The parents would act shocked and say "But we only used "orthodontic/dentist approved" ones! They would be so shocked when the surgeon told them the claim is hogwash. There is no such thing as a good pacifier.
It is actually better for a child to suck their thumb as an infant than use a pacifier. Thumb-sucking is the child
SELF-soothing. Pacifiers are the parent FORCING them to use it, until it becomes the norm. Even tiny babies soon learn that whenever they cry...they MUST have a plug inserted.
Thumb-sucking can cause problems too and some kids can become chronic suckers. But the majority of babies stop on their own when the sucking need diminishes. Pacifier use is often only stopped when the parent is ready to give it up, not the child.
It drives me crazy in church, watching mothers use them.
Baby is hungry? Plug it.
Baby is cooing too loudly? Plug it.
Baby is fussy? Don't find out why...just plug it.
It's a "shut-up" tool for the parents and not a need for the child. The child is trained to believe it "needs" it.