The breast-feeding pattern and caries severity index in the Children 4 to 6 years old (A study at subdistrict of Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta Indonesia) Pipiet Okti Kusumastiwi1 Alfini Octavia2 1, 2 Lecturer of School of Dentistry , Muhammadiyah University Yogyakarta, Indonesia ABSTRACT Background. The previous research revealed that the risk of caries in children consuming bottle-milk twice or more a day increased 2,27 times and several studies also stated the breast-feeding role in prevention of caries incidence. Aim. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between breast-feeding pattern and caries severity in children at of age 4 – 6 years old. Designs This study was conducted with analytic cros-sectional design and cluster sampling technique in three kindergartens at the subdistrict of Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. One hundred and seven pairs of mother and child were examined as the subject. Some questionnares were administered to the mothers for inquiring the breast-feeding patterns while intra oral examination had been conducted for collecting the data of caries severity index (CSI) Results The score of caries severity index in the children who had exclusive breast-feeding was 2,33 and the score in those who had non exclusive breast-feeding is 2,08. Mann Whitney test showed that there was no significant difference in both of children having exclusive breast-feeding and non exclusive breast-feeding. Conclusions There is no significant difference of caries severity between the children having exlusive breast-feeding and non exclusive breast-feeding