Background: To investigate the postoperative effect of dental arch changes in cleft palate patients with modified Sommerlad palatoplasty by intraoral scanning technique in early deciduous dentition children.
Methods: Patients (n=60) with non-syndromic unilateral complete cleft lip with palate (UCLP) or cleft palate only (CPO) treated by modified Sommerlad palatoplasty without relaxed excision before 18 months old and 95 healthy controls without cleft were included. Three-dimension images of the maxillary dental arches of all subjects aged 3 to 4 years were obtained by intraoral scanning (IOS) technique. Seven parameters including anterior dental arch width (Ar-Al), middle dental arch width (Fr-Fl), posterior dental arch width (Sr-Sl), anterior palatal arch width (Cr-Cl), posterior palatal arch width (Mr-Ml), anterior dental arch length (IP-D) and entire dental arch length (IP-O) were measured.
Results: Compared with male group, the Mr-Ml distance of controls in female group statistically decreased (p=0.039) and the Fr-Fl, Sr-Sl, Mr-Ml distance of female patients decreased (p=0.013, p=0.002, p=0.005). The IP-D, IP-O distance of children in UCLP group was shorter than those of CPO children (p＜0.0001, p＜0.0001). Patient group showed decreased distance of Ar-Al, Cr-Cl, IP-D and IP-O and increased distance of Sr-Sl and Mr-Ml compared with control group (p=0.0002, p=0.002, p<0.0001, p<0.0001, p=0.007, p=0.027).
Conclusion: The results indicated that the modified palatoplasty showed no growth inhibition in the middle, posterior dental arch width, and palatal arch width, though slightly but significantly inhibition in the length of anterior and entire dental arch.
Clinical question/ level of evidnce: Risk, III.
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