Establishing the association between nonnutritive sucking behavior and malocclusions

Though malocclusions are of multifactorial etiology, clinicians should inform parents and caregivers about the dental risks of NNSB, an environmental factor that is modifiable. NNSB should be discouraged in order to avoid the development of malocclusions. Future studies should adopt standardized, universally agreed and accepted definitions and classifications when measuring and reporting orthodontic outcome measures. This will help achieve across-study homogeneity.