What are pro & con of pacifier? will it prevent the baby to learn about self soothing? Thanks.?

My son used a pacifier. In a way, it was a major pain because he relied on it to sleep and a lot of the time it was the only thing that would sooth him. However, I will say that it probably saved me some headaches. I got lucky and he pretty much broke hiself of it at 10 months. I have a friend though whos daughter is 2 and she cant get her off it. I guess it just depends on how ya look at it.