PURPOSE: To verify with pediatricians working in the South of Bahia the attitudes and referrals related to deleterious oral habits. METHODS: A transversal study with 30 doctors who work in the area of Pediatrics in the cities of the southern part of Bahia. The participants were invited to answer a questionnaire with nine questions about deleterious oral habits. The data was analyzed using the accurate test of Fisher at significance level of 5%. RESULTS: It was observed that 60.0% of the sample refers its patients to a Speech-Language Pathologist in cases of habit removal. On the question about the frequency of the referrals, the answer "sometimes" was indicated by 73.3% of the doctors, and in 60.0% of these cases the patients actually looked for the indicated treatment. The great majority of the participants (90.0%) do not indicate the use of pacifier and 43.3% wait from 13 to 24 months to advice a child on the removal of the finger sucking. Amongst the ones interviewed, 90.0% observed alterations as a consequence of habits, considering that 93.3% advice the family on this regard. Finally, 90.0% had already referred a patient for the Speech-Language Pathologist, however, only 46.7% for the removal of the habits. The fact that led patients to look for treatment was associated to the fact that a speech-language pathologist indicated the treatment (p=0.024), however, it was not verified an association between a Speech-Language Pathologist indication and the referral to Speech-language services (p=0.054) and the advice for the removal specifically (p=0.072). CONCLUSION: The investigated sample only acts partially associated to the Speech-Language Pathology.
Fingersucking; Pacifiers; Nursing bottles; Professional practice
