Dental age in children with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate

Objective: To assess dental age in children with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate and to compare this with a noncleft control group.

Design: Two-group, mixed-longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Cleft group from an academic center for cleft lip and palate treatment. Noncleft control group from the same population.

Patients: Participants included 70 Caucasian children with a full complement of teeth and a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (45 boys and 25 girls) from the Cleft Palate Craniofacial Center at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The control group (90 boys and 91 girls) was taken from the Nijmegen Growth Study.

Main outcome measure: Dental age was assessed on orthopantomograms. In the unilateral cleft lip and palate group, linear interpolation in individual age curves was applied to obtain the dental age at 5, 9.5, and 14 years of age. For these ages, a comparison was made with the noncleft control group.

Results: Boys and girls with a unilateral cleft lip and palate showed a significant delay in dental age, as compared with their noncleft peers at all three ages. This delay was more pronounced in boys than in girls. The gender effect was significant at chronological ages 5 and 14 years.

Conclusions: Children with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate have a delay in dental age, compared with noncleft children.