The Eurocleft study: intercenter study of treatment outcome in patients with complete cleft lip and palate. Part 3: dental arch relationships

Abstract

Objective: To compare dental arch relationships up to age 17 in individuals with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) treated at five European centers.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study, where results were previously reported at 9 years and follow-up measurements were obtained for 12 and 17 years.

Setting: Multidisciplinary cleft services in Northern Europe.

Subjects: 127 consecutively treated individuals with repaired UCLP.

Main outcome measure: Panel rating of dental arch relationship.

Results: The results revealed that at 17 years of age three of the centers had better ratings in dental arch relationship (means scores: 1.7, 1.9, and 2.2, respectively) than the other two centers (3.3, 3.4) at statistically significant levels ( p < .01 to p < .001).

Conclusion: The results confirm that systematic differences in dental arch relationships may occur between different cleft centers, but do not allow specific causal factors to be identified.