The influence of sucking habits on occlusal development: A follow-up study

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the influence of sucking habits on the occlusal characteristics of the deciduous dentition.

Methods: The initial sample consisted of 86 infants, aged from 0 to 3 months. Seven home visits were performed, when information on breastfeeding practice was collected; mothers were advised about the importance of this practice for the biomechanics of craniofacial morphogenesis, nutritional transition, oral hygiene, mouth breathing and the deleterious effects of nutritive and non-nutritive sucking habits. From the first sample, 58 children had their dental arches molded at the age of 36 months (+2.51SD). Dental casts were obtained and two examiners who were trained and calibrated by Kappa and Pearson Correlation tests measured several parameters of dental occlusion, such as arch length, depth, and width.

Results: The results showed that bottle-feeding before 6 months was associated to an increased mandibular intermolar width (p=0,01). Pacifier use before 6 months was statistically associated to a reduction of the maxillary intercanine (p=0.03) and intermolar (p=0.03) width. Adding to these findings, the increase of the molar depth of the maxillary arch was associated to loss of lip closure before the age of 12 months (p= 0.03).

Conclusion: From these results we conclude that sucking habits interfere in the determination of some occlusal characteristics. Therefore, in order to favor a healthy morphogenesis, the promotion of children’s oral health should start from birth and include a wide range of aspects.