A influência da prática do aleitamento materno na aquisi？？o de hábitos de suc？？o n？o nutritivos e preven？？o de oclusopatias

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 (χ2) 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.