%0 Journal Article %T A influ¨ºncia da pr¨¢tica do aleitamento materno na aquisi£¿£¿o de h¨¢bitos de suc£¿£¿o n£¿o nutritivos e preven£¿£¿o de oclusopatias %A Moimaz %A Suzely Adas Saliba %A Rocha %A Najara Barbosa da %A Garbin %A Art¨ºnio Jos¨¦ Isper %A Saliba %A Orlando %J Revista de Odontologia da UNESP %D 2013 %I Scientific Electronic Library Online %R 10.1590/S1807-25772013000100006 %X objective: this study aimed to investigate the relationship between breastfeeding with non-nutritive sucking habits and malocclusion. material and method: the current cross-sectional and retrospective study was performed based on interviews of 330 mothers of children aging from 3 to 6 years old at ara£¿atuba-sp, after informed consent, using a semi-structured questionnaire that was tested in a pilot study. clinical examinations were conducted in children (n = 306) in order to evaluated the presence of malocclusion. two researchers were previously calibrated (kappa score of 0.91) for interviews and exams assays. chi-square (¦Ö2) and fischer's exact test were used to evaluate this relationship at a significant level of 5% (p < .05). data were processed into the epiinfo and graphpad£¿ softwares. result: most of the mothers (86.4%) breastfed their children; nevertheless, only 33.4% of children were exclusively breastfed up to six months of age. a total of 44% of children had malocclusion, in which 83% of them were not breastfed during the first six months of age. non-nutritive sucking habits were observed in 53.3% (176) of children, and the baby pacifier was the most prevalent one (31.2%). it was noted a significant association between lack of breastfeeding and presence of: malocclusion (p < 0.001), open bite (p = 0.001), posterior crossbite (p = 0.034), non-nutritive sucking habits (p < 0.001) and pacifier use (p < 0.001). the exclusive lack of breastfeeding was associated with pacifier use (p < 0.001). conclusion: in addition to several advantages, the breastfeeding has an important role in the acquisition of non-nutritive habits and prevalence of malocclusion. %K breast feeding %K habits %K malocclusion %K oral health. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1807-25772013000100006&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en